HARVEST AND PRESERVE

If you are lucky enough to get gluts of home-grown fruit or veg Hannah Reid has some ideas on how to preserve and store them

- Hannah Reid

I'll admit it, I have shamefully thrown home-grown produce away after I've left it to sit too long on the bench or in the fridge. Maybe I harvested too many at once. We've all been there - getting a little too excited while picking veggies fresh out of the soil! The buzz it gives me hasn't worn off yet, and I've been growing my own produce for more than five years now. Maybe there's been a glut; courgettes especially. While I do enjoy taking my harvests straight from the ground to the kitchen, I have found lots of new ways to store and preserve my home-grown veggies since I started growing - none goes to waste, and I can enjoy them for months of the year.

KEEPING ROOT VEG

Some produce stores well for months if it is kept in the right conditions; like root vegetables and squash. I have learnt some techniques while harvesting over the years too, like only storing unmarked vegetables and checking on them regularly; removing any that are going bad before they have the chance to affect the others. "One bad apple spoils the rest!" I store my potatoes in paper bags; hessian sacks are good too as this allows air circulation. Storing the harvest in well-ventilated containers and bags will prevent them from rotting. When I harvest my potatoes, I make sure it's a warm day and I remove any mud from them with a dry tissue to prevent mould. I do the same with onions and garlic too as they store best when dried properly. Other root vegetables, like carrots and beetroot, also store well - cut off their leafy tops and cover them in a layer of sand. The sand will prevent them from becoming soft and squishy.

STORING SQUASH