Gearing up for a glut?

[Finedon.Dandy]

I need to get into the habit of preserving more. The last two years, however, I take any surplas down to my butchers and then he gives me 80% of any cash he takes from sales - I made about �20 last year which covered our seeds for this year I do know however that if you have an allotment (we just have a garden plot) the rules may be that selling surplas for profit is not allowed so please check first

[1066]

well, we tend to feed family and friends with our surplus, just love sharing and cooking. Freese all the green beans (blanched), sweetcorn, chillies, some herbs, borlottis, tomato sauces etc

Would like to get into bottling a bit more, but last summer wasn't a great year for excess tomatoes. I'm also on the look out for new pickle dishes - indian/oriental style, as they go down well here. I used to make green tomato chutney, for ourselves, and friends but we don't eat lots and plus I converted our green tomatoes into fried green tomatoes - a heavenly dish to eat

[arpoet]

Last year i carefully selected, cleaned and dried then wrapped all my glut of apples and stored them in boxes in the shed... Then.... the coldest winter on record and 90% frozen and rotted. This years crop looks ever better so i will pulp em and freeze them. I always freeze things like beans and turnips.
Plums are turned into jams, chutneys and pickles. Everything else we cant eat we swap down the lottie.

Roger

[jojo2910]

I started making jams last year using hedgerow finds and with this being our first 'proper' year of gardening we have saved all our jars just in case they are needed. I've taken responsibility for all areas of the garden bar one: tomatoes. The OH has about 200 plants on the go and wants to do his best with all of them. I think I will be finding all sorts of ways to use them up even if I put the OH in stocks and throw them at him for revenge...

[SarzWix]

Our local brewery has started a scheme where you can take your excess apple and pear crops to them, they weigh them and you are then given a commensurate number of 'shares' in a community brew of cider/perry. They put notices up in all the local shops with a date to get your apples to them. It's a great way to get good cider, as it always turns out better with a blend of apples, plus you're spared the hassle of chopping/pulping and pressing them yourself.

Apart from that, our main gluts tend to be planned: We all love french beans so I make sure I have enough freezer space to blanch and store lots of them to last over the winter. Also we use the equivalent of at least 4 tins of tomatoes a week, so I grow 2 greenhouses full of them, and invested in a pressure canner from the US to safely bottle or 'can' them in a variety of sauces like bolognaise with our own onions, garlic and celery, or a chilli base with our own beans and chillis.