Posted by Janet Harriett on Sep.13, 2010

ⓒ iStockPhoto - kcline

I finally dug out of the bushel and a half of pears, and am letting the groundhog-in-residence have the rest. Now, those ten tomato plants are starting to look less and less like a good idea as I’m eating tomatoes breakfast, lunch and dinner, and still have leftovers to freeze and dehydrate. In fact, the only produce I’m not drowning in is zucchini, oddly enough. The vegetable with the prolific reputation is one of the few that I’ve never been able to get to grow decently.

Whether you have a garden or a CSA share, late summer and early fall are the feast times, and it’s easy to let the produce get ahead of you, leaving you with wilted greens, bendy celery and slightly mushy fruits and veggies. These don’t have the peak amount of vitamins, but they’re still salvageable, and the fiber and carbohydrates are still good, unless your fruit is starting to smell a little like hard cider or vinegar. That means the carbs have fermented. Food preservation instructions caution against canning damaged or off-peak produce, but that doesn’t mean that the slightly past-peak fruits and veggies are destined for the compost bin. If they’re a little old, but still look edible, try these tricks.

Smoothies

Cut away blemished areas and blend the fruits into smoothies, or save the cut-up fruit in the freezer for smoothies this winter. This is a great way to keep fruits, but you can also add your limp green leafy veggies to make a green smoothie.

Leathers

Fruit leathers end up better when made with ripe or slightly overripe fruits. A basic fruit leather is made by pureeing the fruit or fruits together then spreading in a thin layer on dehydrator trays to dry. Some fruits, particularly apple and pear, tend to turn out better if you heat the puree first, bit with a glut of fruit, you’ll have plenty for trial and error.

Soups and Stews

The slow cooker is very forgiving of slightly-past-prime produce. You can also make vegetable stock from the off-peak bits to serve as a base for quick soups all winter.

Roast

Vegetables get soft when roasted, so being a bit past prime isn’t going to show up in the finished product. Roasted peppers are common, but just about any vegetable can be roasted alone or in combination. Roasting caramelizes the sugars for a rich flavor. As a bonus for those of us suffering produce overload, roasting reduces the volume of veggies, so a sinkful of raw past-prime vegetables cooks down to a manageable main dish served over pasta or whole grains.

Check out our recipe for roasted yellow pear tomatoes and slow-roasted summer vegetable mix.

Freeze

When all else fails, trim the vegetables of parts that aren’t normally edible (stem ends of tomatoes, seed cores of peppers, seeds and cores of apples) and chuck the lot in the freezer. Zucchini can go in shredded for dozens of uses later.

My deep freeze starts autumn off with several bags labeled “Veggie Mix,” containing whatever I have too much of, in a rough half-inch dice, with no attention paid to the proportions or the exact combination. Come busy days in winter, I can toss one of those in the slow cooker with some homemade stock for vegetable soup, or pour a bit of balsamic vinegar over it, add some garlic and make those slow-roasted summer vegetables.

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Posted under Cooking Healthy, Food, Nutrition & Recipes.