Conserve Those Left Over Vegies Don't Waste Anything

How many times have you stocked up your fresh groceries and find you have too many. Or you have planted your own vegetable garden. For a while they stay stagnant, so you go out and buy a few more plants, then suddenly they take off and you are inundated with stacks of tomatoes.

Never panic help is at hand. There is always a way around anything. While travelling across the Nullabor a few months back, we found ourselves with too many potatoes, onions and a cucumber. We were reluctant to have to give these up at the fruit fly check point, so by doing the following, we did not waste anything.

Onions

We could not take them through the checkout, so we stopped on the side of the road and sliced all the onions, put them in sealed plastic bags and froze them.

Potatoes

Slice these and put on the gas to par boil. We rinsed in cold water, (as did not have any ice) then we bagged them up and stored in freezer.

This is a great way to use up all those not so good overripe ones up.

You will need a large saucepan, tomatoes, onions, garlic, hot sauce, chilies, and whatever spices to suit your own taste buds.

Slice up the tomatoes, put in pot. Slice and chop a few onions, (this will depend on size and amount of tomatoes). Place them into the pot. DO NOT ADD ANY WATER. Stir the mixture and put on very low to heat. The liquid in the tomatoes will give this enough moisture. Stir occasionally. Now chop or crush whole garlic (depend on choice) add to pot and stir. Now add whatever seasoning or spices you wish. If using large pot, I split the mixture it into two dishes and add different spices in each to make a change.

Now if you like you can mix some instant gravy mixture into one of these and stir to thicken. Let it cool and place in sealed plastic bags. Make sure to remove the excess air. Lay flat so it takes less room in freezer. These are great for spaghetti bolognaises, soups, stews, or to add extra to a meal when that unexpected visitor arrives.

• Peas- Choose the fresh young tender peas. Shell, wash, and blanch for two minutes. Chill in ice water, drain, and freeze immediately.
• Snap peas - Choose fresh unblemished pods. String and blanch for two minutes. Chill in the ice water, drain, and freeze immediately!
• Snap beans - Choose the fresh young beans. Wash, top and tail and cut into 1–4-inch pieces. Blanch for three minutes, chill in the ice water, drain and freeze immediately.

Keep Pumpkin and sweet Potatoes and Potatoes by cutting up into medium chunks and blanch then put into cold water with ice blocks to cool then store in freezer bags and place in freezer bags.

Cucumbers

This was simple. We found an empty glass jar in the cupboard and sliced the cucumber. I read somewhere that if you place slices into a dish and add ice blocks for half an hour they will be crisper.

• 1 cup of vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 desert spoon sugar
• spices of your choice.

Boil all these together, leave to cool. Place all sliced cucumbers into jars. When liquid cool pour into jars. Place lids on tight and keep in refrigerator.

Too much Bread

If you bought a few loaves on special, don't waste them. Divide up into 3-4 slices and put into plastic bags and freeze. If the bread is a few days old, put into the oven on low heat until its light brown.

Put into plastic bag, then squash with a rolling pin until resembles breadcrumbs. This can then be stored in sealed jars. Use as stuffing for chooks or sprinkle on top of puddings.

You can also use stale bread to make Bread and Butter puddings.

You can save waste of your fruit by cooking and using for sweets adding cream or custard.

Bottle extra Fruit -You can also Bottle your fruit but that is for another article not here.