One of the best things about summer in Oregon is all the fresh local produce at farmers markets and gardens. For those who are wondering what to do with summer bounty, the Oregon State University Extension has some tips.
KLCC’s Rachael McDonald spoke with Glenda Hyde, an educator at OSU Extension in Redmond. She said freezing extra fruit and veggies is one easy way to preserve it for later.
Glenda Hyde: And possibly, you know, if you have time later and you want to use them to make jams and jellies and can them for other reasons. Other types of foods, you know, pickling sometimes works well, not with cucumbers. So cucumber pickles have to be canned fresh or put in a brine and fermented.
So we have directions for both of those methods and, we also have directions for drying foods. So if you have a lot of excess food, it's fairly easy to preserve. Some of it is pretty low cost.
Others require a little bit of an investment in the equipment.
McDonald: What are some of your favorite fruits and vegetables that are available in the summer? And what do you like to do with them?
Hyde: Well, I have a lot of favorites. That's a tough question. I think I'll highlight a couple of different things. We have been discovering a pectin that's a little bit different from Ball and Mrs. Wages and some of the other commercial ones. But this is a different method. Pomona Pectin has a nice crisp finish for low sugar, jams and jellies and it tastes quite good and they have some really amazing recipes in their recipe book that they also have for sale. Jalapeno apricot jam that their suggestion is to put a little smear on your grilled cheese sandwich. You know, that's one of my favorites.
McDonald: That sounds really good. So let's talk about the Zucchini workshop that's coming up. That's kind of an opportunity for people that have an overwhelming amount of zucchini. What are some of the things that people can do with zucchini?
Hyde: Well, the first thing to do is don't let them get over ripe. They need to be harvested when they're young. My favorite thing to do with zucchini is to dry it into chips. It just brings out the best of the flavor. You know, zucchini kind of tastes a little bit watery because there's a lot of water in it. But once you take the water out, it has an amazing flavor. And you can flavor those chips with any flavor ideas that you can get in the potato chip aisle. So,sour cream, barbecue sauce, or putting any types of powders that you might like to put on on the zucchini. It just really is a great snack. It's low calorie and you can eat as many as you want. You know, they're very crispy, you know. So, I highly recommend that. You would brush the barbecue sauce on and sprinkle the powders, like garlic powder or oregano or thyme. You know, anything that, that you have dried, you can just shake on there and then dehydrate them and it sticks to it that way.
McDonald: Do you have to have a dehydrator for that or is there a way to do it without one?
Hyde: Yes, an electric dehydrator with a fan and a thermostat is what you want to look for. The other thing with zucchini is that almost every cucumber recipe can have zucchini substituted.
And so, relishes are fantastic, especially if they're just a little bit too large, you know, but you really don't want to use overripe produce when you're canning. It’s not gonna improve it at all.
There's nothing that will get better in the canning process, you know. So you always want to can at peak quality. So make sure your zucchinis don't get much bigger than an inch and a half in diameter. It is a good tip. You need to harvest them then. That's when they're gonna have the best flavor.
Registration is open for “What do I do with all this Zucchini?” demonstration on Aug. 14 at the Redmond extension office.
You can find more information about food preservation at the <i>OSU Extension website</i>.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
