8 Edible Plants For Pickling, Preserves, Gins & Jams – For The Ultimate Homegrown Fall Flavor

You don’t have to be worried about the economy to want to make the best of your produce and other foods. Preserving food has centuries of history and was once the only option to save food prior to refrigeration and other modern long term storage methods. Today, with economic insecurities rife, using edible plants for pickling, canning, drying and even alcoholic beverages is becoming both much easier and highly appealing. Preserving vegetables and fruits in such a way ensures a high standard of quality– and it’s also a lot of fun.

We have the benefit of modern kitchen tools to make these time-honored practices easier. You can use a food sealer, processor and food dehydrator to preserve your own healthful foods with ease. Using a combination of homegrown staples and even an element of foraging, you can increase the diversity of harvests – and fill your cupboards and those of your friends with delicious treats. Here are 8 of the most reliable and adaptable edible plants for preserves, pickles and juices.

Best Ways to Preserve Homegrown Crops

Preserving is an umbrella term used to describe many methods of holding food for long periods. These methods slow the breakdown of food, minimize or diminish harmful bacteria, prevents oxidation, and slows enzymatic activity that will cause food to spoil more quickly. These efforts can lead to foods that hold for months while still ensuring food quality.

• Pickling: Pickling is one of those practices that many of us grew up doing with our grandparents. In essence, food is preserved with salt and vinegar. It is similar to fermentation, which relies upon beneficial bacteria to save food for long periods of time. Both often result in tangy, complex flavors and long storage periods. You may can pickles to ensure even longer storage periods.
• Drying: Drying is another way to preserve foods for longer. By removing the moisture that feeds enzymes and bacteria, the food will remain stable for much longer than if it is left fresh. Food dehydrators, freeze drying and sun drying are common methods of drying food.

• Jams & Jellies: If you’re familiar with the ‘jam girl summer’ idea, you’ll know that making jams, jellies, and other preserves are great ways to save fruits. If you’ve got loads of strawberries going spare, you’ve probably already tried this approach. This process allows you to save the best of the summer season and enjoy it in the fall or winter on hot, buttered toast. These preserves may be canned or frozen. You may need pectin to help thicken the fruit, and usually sugar as part of the preservation process.
• Fermenting & Making Drinks: Humans have been making alcoholic beverages for as long as we have been around. What may have started out as the consumption of fermenting wild fruit is now a process that holds many varieties and blends. Home brewers and fermenters may have dabbled with a bit of elderberry or dandelion wine. Just as there are many types of tea, there are many types of alcohol. You can have fun making your own gin, and infusing it with herbals and botanicals to custom-make a personalized cocktail.

Ultimate Edible Plants To Preserve

There are plenty of crops that can be preserved successfully for future use in the kitchen. Here are some of my favourite homegrown fruits and vegetables for switching up into pickles, jams, gins and so on, along with a few of the great ways you can adapt these crops for preserves.

1. Elderberry

Elderberries are native to parts of North America, Asia, Europe, and many other regions. They are gorgeous bushes or small trees with wonderful flowers and lacy leaves. The flowers turn into dark, purple-black berries, which make wonderful jams and wine. They would also make an excellent juice for coolers or iced sherbets.

Good elderberry varieties for high yields and sweet berries include ‘Nova’, ‘Ranch’, ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘Adams’. If you’re interested in adding to your elderberry family for next year’s elderberry harvests, there’s also ‘Marge’, available to buy as a bush from Fast Growing Trees, which makes lovely dense, concentrated flavors for wine and jam.

2. Apples

Many home gardeners have a dwarf apple tree or columned specimen. Apples are loaded with fiber and make an excellent snack just out of hand. But they also have loads of natural pectin, which means when you make apple jelly or butter, they will thicken up during cooking. Apple trees are some of the best edible plants for preserves, and they also have a long history in home alcohol production. For anyone with a hearty apple harvest to use up, hard cider and apple jack are traditions of the fall that will keep you warm in winter.

In terms of suitable varieties for ciders, ‘Yarlington’, ‘Honeycrisp’ and ‘Ashmead’s Kernel’ are great for bittersweet flavor. ‘Cortland’ makes a delicious apple sauce, while ‘Gala’ and ‘Fuji’ are excellent for making butters. ‘Honeycrisp’ live plants from Brighter Blooms, available at Amazon, are relatively quick to establish and highly versatile as a prolific source of sweet and crunchy fruit.

3. Rhubarb

The ruby red stalks and elegant large leaves are hallmarks of this spring food. While technically a vegetable, rhubarb is commonly used in sweet recipes. The stalks have a tart crunch a bit too sour for most eaters, but when you cook or stew it down with sugar, the tartness is tamed into a symphony of flavor. Another of the best edible plants for jams and preserves, this crop’s garnet hues also shine in rhubarb wine.

In terms of good rhubarb varieties for preserves, ‘Victoria’ is a superb choice for tartness, whilst ‘German Wine’ (as the name suggests) is an excellent option for those in search of a unique tipple. If you’re looking to introduce some new flavors into your kitchen garden for future pickling, you can buy ‘Crimson Red’ and ‘Victoria’ rhubarb plants, bare roots and bulbs from Burpee.

4. Blueberries

As well as being one of the most popular superfruits you can grow in your yard, blueberries have some natural advantages if you need to know how to preserve edibles. Chief amongst these is that they have a strong pectin content, so they are able to thicken well in jams. They make incredible sauces and juices, and can also be dried to make leathers, as well as creating one of the loveliest pie fillings!

There are plenty of great blueberry varieties if you’re looking to make preserves, including ‘Patriot’ for sweetness, ‘Chandler’ for large fruit, and ‘Bluecrop’ for the relatively impressive size of a typical harvest. You can find a great range of blueberry varieties at Fast Growing Trees, including ‘Pink Lemonade’ for a brightly colored fruit.

5. Cucumbers

For those of us who adore our burgers, the pickle slice is an essential pleasure and one we can all make from scratch. Transforming a cucumber glut into a cupboard full of pickles really just comes down to the variety you grow. Technically, you can pickle many types of cucumber, but the best varieties tend to be those with fewer seeds (which tend to be the smaller types, also known as pickling cucumbers).

You can grow heirloom and hybrid cucumbers – heirlooms have special flavors and unique traits, whilst hybrids tend to be better for disease resistance. Good pickling cucumber varieties include ‘Boston Pickling’, ‘Kirby’ and ‘Calypso’ cucumbers. If you buy ‘Calypso’ seeds from Amazon and plant them this week, you can harvest fruits around 55 days later: there’s still time to squeak through a new batch for fall pickles!

6. Leeks

Check the price of a bundle of leeks in your supermarket, and you may think it is a bundle of gold sheafs. Leeks are easy to grow in most regions and ready to harvest by the end of the season. You can often put in a second crop to overwinter and harvest in late spring. Leeks can be used in vinegars and oils, compound butter, diced and frozen, or made into paste.

The creamy, sweet edge to leeks makes them particularly flavorsome as butters. Some really nice options for preserves include tender ‘Giant Musselburgh’ and sweet ‘Tadorna’. For those interested in adding leeks to the patch, good seed and bare root leek options at Burpee include ‘Dawn Giant’ and ‘Lancelot’ leeks.

7. Cabbage

We often use fresh cabbage in salads and other dishes like cabbage rolls. But this fiber- and vitamin-rich food can also be preserved for later use. One great way to save cabbage after harvesting is by fermenting it. Kimchi and sauerkraut have been made for centuries, and are still favorites.

For novel and delicious twists on traditional sauerkraut, try a crunchy, textural ‘Savoy’ cabbage or even a red variety like ‘Climaro’ or ‘Red Drumhead’ cabbage. Meanwhile, ‘Napa’ is a solid choice for kimchi as it softens beautifully during the fermenting process. There are several excellent cabbage seed options, including ‘Napa’, available at Amazon.

8. Bell Peppers

You can enjoy these summer delicacies at any time of the year. Dry cubes or slices, freeze cut pieces, puree and preserve in oil, make into sauces, or pickle for later. When growing bell peppers, it tends to be the case that you wait ages for those first few bells, and then several others pop up before you can readily consume the rest – so making preserves is a tasty (and attractive) way to make more of a bumper crop.

If you are keen to advance your bell pepper growing into pickling, opt for varieties that have chunky walls and a firm texture that will hold its shape. Delicious pickled pepper options include ‘Fresno’ and ‘Hungarian Wax’ peppers. There are some excellent red bell pepper seed options available at Walmart for anyone looking to get a headstart on next year’s sowings and guarantee the best pickling peppers.

Frequently Asked Questions