Freezing zucchini w/out blanching, incredible garlic pickles and my favorite four-letter word.❄️

Published: Sun, 08/21/22

Good morning, Rural Sprout readers,

How is it Sunday already? I’m amazed at how quickly the week went by; the last two weeks, actually. I’ve had my hands full with my boys getting them ready to go back to school. And this week, my daughter and son-in-law came to visit. It’s been a bit crazy in my house lately.

I have to ask, are there any winter fans among our readers?

There always comes a point in the summer when I get a little antsy for cool weather. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking to break out the Christmas decorations or anything. But every summer, I start getting wistful for snow.

Yup, snow. That four-letter word you’re not supposed to say in August.

Winter has always been my favorite season, ever since I was a kid. I’ve had plenty of people tell me that would change as I got older, but here I am at 43, and I still can’t wait for that first snowflake in the air.

I’m grateful for our beautiful weather and the food I can grow during the summer. I get so much joy from the gardening season, but there is something about winter that I look forward to every year.

Rest.

Winter is the time when the natural world slows down. We give our soil a well-deserved rest after a long growing season. And if you follow the cues we get from nature, with longer nights and shorter days, we should slow down too.

I know it’s early to be talking about cold weather, but I always feel like this time of year connects us to winter. For those gardeners that opt to preserve what they grow, right now is when we’re busy canning jars of tomatoes, freezing green beans and storing up all that wonderful veg that’s coming out of the garden.

It’s time travel, without all the fuss of waiting for science to figure it out for us.

As we line up shiny jars full of pickles, you can’t help but think ahead to the future tangy bites of dill pickle you’ll be taking later this year. Or maybe you’ve canned some tomato sauce with future pasta dinners in mind. Speaking of Christmas, you can’t help but smile and think about the homemade jams that will be given as gifts.

Of course, come wintertime, when you take a bite of ratatouille that you canned, you’ll be transported back to those sunny days in August when you were picking eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes from the garden to make the delicious bite you’re savoring.

Right now, while it’s still hot out and we’re as busy as ever putting up produce, and preparing to shut our gardens down in the next season, why not spend a few moments thinking of ways to give ourselves a rest once the growing season is over.

Our soil needs that time to recuperate and replenish after a busy summer, and so do we. Make plans now to replenish yourself this coming winter.

We’ve got great new articles this week if you need some ideas on what to do with all the produce coming out of the garden right now.