Connie Lemon, hobby gardener, presented the program, “Harvesting Your Garden,” at the October Kankakee Kultivators Garden Club monthly meeting on Oct. 10.

“If you do a taste test between store bought canned foods, and home-grown, home-processed produce, there is just no comparison. The taste is so much fresher, and less processed tasting,” Lemon said.

Living outside of Kankakee, she described how her garden interest grew in size since she moved there in October of 2019.

Growing up on a farm, she was used to a big garden, but really hadn’t gardened since moving to the Chicago area in 2005. She now has a 15X30 foot no-till garden, plus several raised beds and a large raspberry patch. She gardens with her 27-year-old son, Eric.

“He does the heavy lifting,” she said.

Lemon discussed several methods of processing foods for the array of fruits and vegetables in her garden. Many are standard methods, and she said to be sure to use trusted sources for instructions for canning, such as the <a href="https://extension.illinois.edu/food" target="_blank">Illinois Extension</a> and <a href="https://www.ballmasonjars.com/canning-preserving-guides.html" target="_blank">Ball Canning Guide</a>.

She described some new processing methods she started using this year. She had a huge batch of garlic and didn’t want to watch it start sprouting over the winter. She cleaned, peeled, and placed in jars with vinegar to store over the winter in her refrigerator. It also makes preparing recipes using garlic much faster when the time comes to use it. You can find a trusted description of this method from acclaimed chef <a href="https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/preserving-garlic-for-winter" target="_blank">Ina Garten</a>.

She also used a method of canning tomatoes that takes all the work out of peeling, straining through a colander, or other tedious methods of making juice and sauces.

The basic puree can be adjusted by adding ingredients for pizza sauce, marinara, etc. It makes a basic tomato sauce and can be cooked down into tomato paste that can be frozen in serving sized portions for your recipes.

Here are the basic instructions:

<strong>Tomato Puree for Sauces and More</strong>

<ul><li>Clean tomatoes, cutting out the core and blemishes.</li><li>Cut into equal size pieces so they cook in the same amount of time.</li><li>Place on foil lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt.</li><li>The options that she adds are chunks of onion, and whole heads of garlic. The amount of these you add depends on the flavor you want.</li></ul>

Bake at 325 degrees until the outer skin of the tomatoes is caramelized and splitting off the tomato.

<ul><li>Allow it to cool to room temperature.</li></ul>

Squeeze the garlic out of the skins.

<ul><li>Put the tomatoes (including skin and seeds), onions, garlic puree, and juices into a food processor. Do in batches, only filling about half full.</li><li>Blend until everything is well pureed. (You should no longer be able to see skin and seeds.)</li><li>Pour back into a Dutch oven and heat to a simmer. It is thick at this point, but cook longer if you want a thicker puree.</li><li>Pour into jars and process in hot water bath for 20 minutes.</li></ul>

Herbs can be preserved by just placing in a baggy and freezing, or dehydrating.

A basic dehydrator can be used to dry your herbs.

<ul><li>Place on trays and dry until the herbs are well-dried and crispy.</li><li>Chop or leave whole as desired.</li></ul>

Place in covered containers, and store at room temperature, or in the refrigerator to increase shelf-life.

Her newer method she sometimes uses when in a hurry, is to dry in the microwave. This includes placing in a single layer on a paper towel lined plate, or a dehydrator tray. Microwave for a minute at a time until the desired level of dryness and crispiness. Total time is usually about 3-4 minutes.

Lemon gave ideas and recipes for several other fruits and vegetables in her presentation. She states that gardening is an ongoing experiment; you should keep trying new vegetables to grow, and try new processing methods and recipes. You will be satisfied with the outcome.

The Kankakee Kultivators Garden Club meets monthly and is always welcoming new members. Reach out, and watch for updates on their Facebook page at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kankakeekultivators" target="_blank">facebook.com/kankakeekultivators</a>.