3 ways to use up your garden’s bounties after you’ve shared with family and friends

JOLIET, Ill. — Will County Master Gardener Nancy Kuhajda said a meme is circulating social media that warns people to keep their car doors locked at night — otherwise, neighborhood gardeners might stuff the backseats full of produce.

“Gardening is an incredible hobby,” said Kuhajda, University of Illinois Extension program coordinator for agriculture and natural resources in Will County.

“It’s also feast and famine. At first, you don’t have any tomatoes and you’re waiting for the zucchini and cucumbers to come in. The next day, you don’t know how to give it away.”

For those with an overabundance of the fruits and vegetables of their labors, Kuhajda has three suggestions for their use. In all three cases, safety is paramount, she said.

Donating

Donating extra produce to a food pantry is a wonderful way to share with those in need, Kuhajda said. In fact, backyard gardeners are covered under the Good Samaritan Act for food donations.

Animal manure or manure-based compost may contaminate produce, so avoid using it at least 120 days before planting vegetable gardens. Instead, use finished compost from landscaping suppliers or garden centers, Kuhajda said.

Here’s how to donate safely — and courteously.

First, call the food pantry, Kuhajda said. Do they accept produce donations? Which ones? How many?

Small pantries will need less, and other pantries may have cultural considerations, Kuhajda said.

“It’s good to be sensitive to what people can use and to be sure volunteers can get it to them as fresh as possible,” she said.

Ask when produce will be distributed. Then harvest the produce that morning and bring it to the donation center, Kuhajda said.

“The longer something is off the vine, the more it declines in texture and flavor before it’s used,” she said.

And send some recipes, since not everyone cooks with fresh ingredients — or knows varied ways to use them, Kuhajda said.

For instance, zucchini is a great food “extender” in breads and cookies, but also in meats, “especially in these days of high prices and inflation,” she said.

Turn uncooked tomatoes into a quick salsa; simmer tomatoes for spaghetti sauce, Kuhajda said.

Preserving

“As we have evolved, different pathogens have also evolved,” Kuhajda said.

That’s why people should consult experts and not rely on past experience and family tradition, because if food is not preserved correctly, “it can kill someone,” she said.

For instance, never seal homemade preserves with paraffin wax because temperature changes may cause the wax to shrink, Kuhajda said.

“That allows molds and bacteria to get underneath there,” she said.

Foods that aren’t high in acid must be pressure canned — not pressure cooked, Kuhajda said.

“With the advent of the new Instant Pot and other pressure cookers, many people are erroneously assuming that they can be used for pressure canning,” she said. “They cannot.”

Kuhajda said consider freezing tomatoes rather than canning them. Rinse fresh tomatoes. Make an “X” on the bottom with a knife. Remove the core. Load tomatoes into a freezer bag.

When you remove the bag from the freezer, “the tomato skins will just pop right off” and the tomatoes can be used in any cooked product, Kuhajda said.

She said to check out the food preservation information on the University of Georgia Extension website at fcs.uga.edu/extension/food-preservation.

University extension offices are great resources for information that is current and research- and science-based, she said.

Composting

Kuhajda said she has heard the arguments against composting — the neighbors will complain about the smell, it will attract animals, or it might combust. All are false if done correctly, she said.

Reduce smells and interest from animals by not tossing meats, oils and fats into the pile. Stick with vegetables products, Kuhajda said.

Combustion is a concern with dry compost, not a problem with vegetable compost, whose problem is often too much moisture, she said.

A simple compost is nothing more than a covered trough in the ground, Kuhajda said.

“In pioneer times, they dug rows adjacent to the vegetables garden, creating troughs where they buried their food scraps,” she said.

Again, extension offices can help with composting, too, Kuhajda said. Visit extension.illinois.edu/global/composting-resources.

Kuhajda said it’s better to compost the leftovers than throwing them away. Next year, scale back the garden next year to reduce waste, she said.

Do a little Googling to find out the yield for different plants, she said.

For example, don’t plant 12 zucchini plants when one can provide for the gardener, the neighbors “and anyone who walks down the street,” Kuhajda said.