the summer veggies are winding down. by this point i usually am ready for the transition to fall. one of these years i hope to do some fall planting too. there are lots of greens and other plants that can be planted for the fall. but usually by this point i feel like i need a break from the garden so i just let the summer garden run its course. i'll be heading out of town soon too, so i've been spending the last week gathering up the remaining veggies and prepping them so that i can still use them in the coming months.
i first made a huge batch of pesto with my basil. pesto freezes really easily. amazingly i had enough of everything except the parmesan cheese to make all this pesto. but i freeze it without the cheese so that worked out. i think i'll have enough pesto to last until next summer's harvest.
the peppers and eggplants are still producing quite a bit. after roasting about half a dozen peppers and then stuffing another half dozen i still had about 8 left. peppers are easy to freeze. i cut them into large pieces and then spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze. once they were frozen, i put them in a plastic freezer bag. freezing them like this keeps the pieces separate and easier to use.
the eggplant required a little more work. after a little searching online i found out that they needed to be blanched. i peeled and sliced them, then blanched them in water and a little lemon juice for 4 minutes. after draining them i plunged them in an ice bath to stop the cooking. then like the peppers, i froze them on a cookie sheet before putting them in a plastic bag. they looked like eggplant popsicles, hmmm, not sure that seems too appetizing.
