ShannonC
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How to preserve summer squash?

Any information on preserving summer squash? I would love to have any canning, pickling, or freezing information. This is my first year growing squash and I love it! I hated it for most of my life, (due to being made to consume it daily as a child!) Now I really want to take this into winter with me. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated :D

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jal_ut
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Enjoy it in season. I have not found a good way to preserve it. Tried both freezing and bottling (one time only). It just ain't the same.

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applestar
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I wonder if it would work if you breaded them (flour, eggwash, seasoned bread/cracker crumbs) THEN froze them...? Has anyone tried that?

Another way that I think might be good is to make ratatouille with them, THEN freeze the ratatouille.

My first year growing them too -- I'm growing yellow squash, zucchini, and pattipan squash. No flowers yet for me though... I was a little late planting the seeds.

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Kisal
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You can make pickles out of zucchini. I don't have my recipe handy just now, but there are many online. :)

The West Virginia University Extension Service has this article online about preserving summer squash:

https://www.wvu.edu/~exten/infores/pubs/fypubs/wp399_99.pdf

cynthia_h
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(*true confessions* time...)

I read Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette books when they came out, and I still read them from time to time. Her advice is timeless.

She and her family had a large garden in Maine, and harvested MANY POUNDS of zucchini every summer. It was beyond even the capacity of an 8-member family to consume all of their zucchini fresh, so Amy developed a solution:

--Shred the raw zucchini, and then
--Freeze it in ziplock-type bags. Lay them down flat in the freezer and then, once frozen, they'll stand up on their own.

Then, during the cold months, she made zucchini bread (think banana bread, but with zucchini--it really works! but I knocked the cinnamon out of my recipe). A taste of summer in January. :)

This is really easy if you have a food processor, but a true pain if you don't. Hand-grating so much zucchini is going to be time-consuming....

Cynthia H.
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Curly
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I've done what Cynthia said, and it works well. We looove zucchini bread!

The ratatouille is another good idea, but prepared food like that should only be kept for up to three month in the freezer.

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Kisal
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Try zucchini pie, too! It's wonderful! Tastes like apple pie. My family and friends all love the stuff. :)

Charlie MV
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I'm so odd, We just freexe it as cynthia deasribed and eat it all winter. Still like it better than the stuff we get in the winter at Walmart.

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applestar
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Kisal, that's interesting, I was just re-reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Ma made a green pumpkin pie (with a pumpkin that didn't have the chance to ripen due to an unexpected early freeze) that Pa said tasted like apple pie. She added vinegar in it....

Would you share your recipe please? :D

Charlie MV
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I've been laughed at more than once while getting busted watching "Little House on the Prairie" I don't care. Laura was so cute. Michael Landon said she was so buck toothed that she could eat an apple through a picket fence. I always liked him too.

petalfuzz
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cynthia_h wrote: --Shred the raw zucchini, and then
--Freeze it in ziplock-type bags. Lay them down flat in the freezer and then, once frozen, they'll stand up on their own.

Then, during the cold months, she made zucchini bread (think banana bread, but with zucchini--it really works! but I knocked the cinnamon out of my recipe). A taste of summer in January. :)

This is really easy if you have a food processor, but a true pain if you don't. Hand-grating so much zucchini is going to be time-consuming....

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
I whole-heartedly agree, though I think freezing the shreds in an ice cube tray is easier. Pack the shreds into an ice cube tray and when frozen, put in a plastic bag. this is easier to add to recipes cause it's separate, not a solid block of zucchini!



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