Summer is approaching its end and everything in our vegetable garden is reaching time to be harvested. After months of our garden blooming and being able to pick what we want when we needed it. It can be a bit overwhelming to have now reached the point where a lot of what we’ve grown needs harvesting at once and having to work out what we should do with it all.

In general we try to use as much as we can while everything is fresh in meals and snacks. We tend to make large batches of what we're eating and freeze portions for use on busy days. This year those meals will definitely come in useful once the baby gets here! However it’s not always possible to use everything we pick. So today I thought I’d share the different ways we are storing this years harvest!

The first things we do with anything we harvest is bring it in and give it a good wash and dry. From there we pick over any produce that is rotting or is eaten my bugs to leave the bits we want to store.

For vegetables such as potatoes, onions squash and garlic the storing process is easy. With the dried vegetables we store it in produce trays in our garage shelves or in our pantry. This keeps them in a cool, dry, dark space to prolong the freshness of our vegetables and means we can access it when needed over the next few weeks and months.

For vegetables such as beans, peas, corn or fruits that we've got excess of I tend to freeze them. I have found the best way to do this is after they have been washed thoroughly is to prepare them how you are most likely to want to use them, then freeze in zip lock bags or Tupperware.

This year we've got an excess of broad beans so I’ve top and tailed the beans, then cut them into 1 inch sections so I can just pour them into boiling water to have as a side throughout the next few months or add them straight from frozen into any meal I’m cooking.

We also have a lot of cooking apples to use. This year I’m freezing them in a few different ways, the first is peeling and slicing them into the size I need for pies, cookies or crumbles then freesing each in individual zip lock bags. The second way I’m freezing them is actually making the filling for different styles of crumbles and freezing portions of it ready for use if I need a quick dessert. I also pre make some individual crumbles and some portions of crumble topping for use like this too!

This year we have lots of tomatoes that are almost ready to pick. My plan for these is to make a selection of soups, sauces and jars of sundried tomatoes for use through autumn. They all taste amazing and are definitely worth the time and effort.

I’m also aware we are going to be given a large selection of chillies that my parents have been growing. Our favourite way to use these up is by making chilli jam. We did this last year with produce my husband was given when his kitchen closed last October and sent the jam as gifts at Christmas time. We have received so many requests for more from family and friends that its definitely on the to do list for this autumn. If you’d like to see a recipe let me know below!

Where we have excess herbs we tend to do one of three things. We regularly dehydrate the herbs and store them in sealed containers to top up our herb and spice drawer through the year. This can be done easily in either most air fryers or in the oven, they just need to be dried out on a low temperature over a long time.

The second way we use herbs are in different flavored pestos, this works well for herbs such as basil, sage or leaves such as rocket. By using different nuts and other ingredients such as garlic and avocado you can create all sorts of tasty pesto. How to make four of my favourites can be found here if you’re looking for inspiration! It’s also useful to know most pesto can be frozen, just pop it in ice cube trays and into the freezer. You can pop them out into Tupperware or zip lock bags when frozen, then can be dropped in any meal you like to defrost!

The final way we like to use herbs is by making herb infused oils. I do this about once every two months for use everyday in the kitchen.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how we are planning to use and store our harvest. If you have grown anything this year, how are you using it up? Let me know In the comments below!

Julia x