Midsummer is the time for active canning and the processing of seasonal berries, fruits, herbs and vegetables. To manage to keep as many tasty fresh products for the winter as possible is a rather difficult task. To cope with it, it is worth highlighting priority tasks and monitoring the start and end dates of a season of one or another fruit.
Pick your recipe
Before deciding what, how and in what quantities to harvest for the winter in July, you need to consider some factors: territorial, seasonal and weather. An important role is played by the presence or absence of one's own household. Summer residents can collect almost the entire palette of harvested fruits, roots, herbs and berries in their area. But people who do not have their own house with a plot outside the city will have to be content with only purchased products. And therefore, be especially careful and careful when choosing raw materials for harvesting for the winter.
But it’s not enough to properly grow or choose on the counter. It is necessary to be able to prepare products, preserving the maximum amount of nutrients and natural taste.
There are a lot of processing methods. It all depends on personal preferences and capabilities. So sweet fruits and berries can be ground with sugar, turned into chips, dried fruits, candied fruits, boiled jam or sauces, turned into jams, jellies, jams, mashed potatoes, compotes, juices or simply frozen whole or cut into halves, quarters. Vegetables are usually pickled, salted, canned, rolled in their own juice or in the form of salads, soup dressings, caviar. Herbs can be dried, pickled and frozen, added to juices and compotes.
The beginning of July is the time for garden honeysuckle. This unusually useful berry is the first in line for processing. Already in the middle of summer they ripen: felt cherry, raspberries, red, white and black currants, blueberries, and at the end of the month the collection of apricots and gooseberries begins. Also at this time you can collect juicy cherry plum. In early July, you can have time to collect the outgoing strawberries, but only if June was not hot and arid. In the plots of the inhabitants of the southern part of the country, irgi, mulberry, blackberry, and gonobol ripen; in the northern part, blueberries and cloudberries become the basis for the July harvest.
June is the traditional time of the first greens, lettuce and radish. But the middle of summer pleases with the first harvests of zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, cabbage and carrots. But everything again depends on individual characteristics: care, greenhouse or soil, time and region of planting. It is important to remember that at this time you can’t overexpose the fruits, you need to regularly check the plantings and harvest. In the second half of the month, you should pay attention to winter garlic, cabbage, beans, potatoes and green peas.
In July, there is an active conservation of soup dressings, peas and beans; cooking lecho, squash caviar, rolling tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as pickling and pickling them. You can also roll them separately or make assorted, prepare them for the winter in the form of salads or snacks. The arrows of garlic should also be frozen for the winter. They will be a great addition to any dish.
In July, an abundant harvest of herbs is already beginning, which can be harvested for the winter in various ways. Herbs and leaves for tea are usually dried or fermented. These include, for example, ivan tea, leaves of strawberries, currants, lingonberries, mint, lemon balm, tarragon, lemongrass, etc. Dill, parsley, sorrel and basil can be frozen, dried or pickled. The latter method is considered the most preferable, since the largest amount of vitamins and nutrients is stored in herbs.
In July, the mushroom season begins. It's time to arm yourself with everything you need and go to the forest for boletus, oils, chanterelles, boletus and, of course, porcini mushrooms. The harvesting method for each mushroom varies. So chanterelles, for example, cannot be frozen immediately, otherwise they will be bitter. Before sending them to the freezer, they should be boiled a little. Butter is recommended not to dry, but to pickle; porcini mushrooms - to dry.
But no matter what mushrooms, fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs, and in whatever form were stored for the winter, they will always be a great addition to the usual menu and a great treat on the table on winter days and evenings.