Now that I'm about to become a home owner, this is exactly the thread I want to check out!
Sis, what do you do with excess cucumbers and greens from the garden? Can you preserve cucumbers without pickling them?
Yes, you found me!
But, I’m only here when I am taking breaks from gardening or working lately. You will love this thread though as you get into your home ownership. Closing is in 2 days right? YEA!!!
I don’t know anything to do with cucumbers except to pickle. I always keep a bunch sliced up in vinegar in the fridge but they have so much water content that any other method of freezing or canning just makes them mushy. And I don’t have any recipes to use cucumber mush in.
Now Greens. They can up good. They also freeze well. If you can them you have to use a pressure canner, they are not acidic enough to do in a water bath canner which is the “easy” method. (Both are easy to me.) But, pressure canners are expensive and if you are just starting out you can freeze them very easily.
Wash them by soaking in a tub of water with some salt added. Salt will get any bugs off and clean them well. Take ‘em out of the cleaning water and just blanch or go ahead and cook them, put them in containers and freeze.
Also, I just mix different kinds of greens in the same container when I can them or freeze them.