I always try to preserve vegetables and herbs from the garden. This year, I preserved tomatoes by making slow-roasted tomatoes in oil, pickling green tomatoes and making a roasted green tomato salsa. The pickled tomatoes keep for a couple of months in the fridge (I love them in sandwiches, especially with sharp cheddar, sliced green apple, arugula and coarse mustard), the salsa keeps a few days, and I always freeze the slow-roasted tomatoes and move one jar at a time to the fridge for use. Those are terrific in pasta recipes or on pizza.

I also made Thai hot sauce, quick-pickled several batches of cucumbers and made several batches of Thai pesto and regular pesto, including a delicious garlic scape pesto with sunflowers. The hot sauce is stored in the fridge (it keeps forever, the last batch kept for two years). The pickled cucumbers keep for a few weeks, and I always freeze the pesto in ice cube trays and use one or several cubes in my cooking as needed.

As I do every year, I cured my garlic and winter squash. The softneck garlic hangs in my pantry (I used up all the hardneck garlic), and the winter squash is stored in the unheated back hallway that connects the kitchen and the back porch. Both will keep well into the spring if they last that long.

I also froze a big ziplock bag of red currants that I had harvested in June. And I cleaned and froze my home-grown ginger. I don’t grow enough herbs (other than basil) to preserve them. But maybe I will grow some next year to dry.