Preserving Summer's Bounty

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

As this summer draws to a close, backyard vegetable gardening enthusiasts are celebrating the bounty of the season. If you had a good year in the garden, then right now your kitchen might be flush with ripening squash, pepper, cucumbers, melon, corn, and tomatoes. Those of us who do not have our own vegetable patch may be fortunate to have a friend or coworker who supplies us with freshly picked produce and herbs.

A common gardener's conundrum is how to use up all the wonderful produce that seems to ripen all at the same instant. I fondly remember summers growing up where we had so many tomatoes coming out of the garden that my parents didn’t know what to do with them all. Us kids found plenty of creative uses for the ones that didn't get eaten right away, such as building a pyramid of tomatoes, or our favorite late summer activity, having a make believe “fight” with some overripe tomatoes. This mainly consisted of my brother pelting my sister and I with dozens of the juiciest tomatoes plucked from the crop. In those glory days, it seemed like that for every tomato that was picked, two would appear the next day in its place.

Now, all of the tomato-wasting we did in my youth seems like a crime. With my small and not so sunny backyard, I have trouble getting just a couple of little tomatoes to come up and ripen before the squirrels carry them off. Fortunately I live close to a farmers' market where I can purchase a nice variety of colorful (from red, to yellow, and even green zebra) tomatoes. Lately, an anonymous coworker has also been leaving dozens of the ripest red tomatoes in the kitchen for the rest of us to share in the bounty, so I am still getting my fill of summer tomatoes.

Now that I have really learned to appreciate the simple flavor of a perfectly ripe tomato with a little salt and pepper, and maybe some basil, I look forward to a time in the (hopefully not too far off) future when I can get a really good crop of my own tomatoes growing. This time, those that cannot be eaten immediately will definitely be put to good use for later in the year.

We used to spend an afternoon in the late summer working on preserving the payload of tomatoes and the rest of the veggies in glass Ball jars that we would then save for the winter months. The process is a simple one in which the tomatoes are stewed whole for hours with just some bay leaves, salt, pepper, and sugar. You can also add fresh basil leaves, and other veggies such as peppers or celery. Stewed tomatoes are easily adaptable to the crockpot. An added bonus is that the crockpot will free up your stove if you plan to process the results in sterilized jars placed in boiling water according to your favorite canning recipe.

This procedure will allow you to enjoy summer's ripe flavors in the dark and colder days of autumn and winter. You can also freeze the stewed tomatoes in quart or gallon sized Ziploc bags if you plan to use them sooner. Just make sure to remove all air from the bags so the results do not a build up a watery layer of ice or become freezer burned. These bags can then be frozen flat on their sides so they can be easily stacked one on top of the other. Preserved tomatoes are perfect for tomato sauce based recipes and soups, and a great way to prolong the fresh flavors and memories of summer.

Serves/Makes: 6

• 8 large ripe tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped