Zucchini I shred and freeze in bags for making zucchini bread all winter long- no processing required. Extra bell peppers I roast some and then freeze after I've rubbed the black off. I do take some peppers raw, chop them and then freeze just like that for using in soups, stews, casseroles all winter.

Find out if your area requires a business license for selling extra vegetables from the tailgate of a truck, or a small stand.

Then find a place that gets a goodly amount of traffic AND has parking. Make a few signs (large letters!) and put them out far enough to give people time to make up their mind.

Sell your excess to fund next year's seeds and soil improvements.

If you don't want to invest the time, ask a neighbor that has a pickup, and split the proceeds. A senior might well have the truck, the time, want to chat with people, and supplement his/her social security.

Sue

Zucchinis, peppers and eggplant oh my! Peppers are easy. Rinse them, chop open and remove the seeds. Slice or dice to a useful size for you. Throw in a freezer baggie and freeze. The peppers will loose their texture being frozen, but for things like chili or pepper & sausage sandwiches they work just fine. Out of laziness, I have whole habaneros in freezer baggies now. You can also make pepper jelly.

Zucchinis I shred into to two cup increments. My zucchini bread recipe calls for two cups. I also make potato & zucchini pancakes from shredded zucchini. You can make zucchini fried or into parmesan the same way you do eggplant.

The Patty Pan squash.....I don't know. You could shred it the same way with zucchini, but it seems a waste of a fun shaped veggie.

Same as most of the others have said - freeze shredded zukes and peppers as well as whole tomatoes. Dry peppers and tomatoes and can tomatoes in various forms. Jellies, jams, pickles. You can pickle just about anything!

Check out the Harvest Forum here too as we always have multiple discussions going on over there about various forms of garden produce preserving once harvesting begins.

Dave

To save time during the busy harvest season, I sometimes freeze whole tomatoes. Just wash them and put them into freezer bags or plasticware. On cold winter days, when the house can use the extra heat and humidity, I'll cook them up into sauce. As long as freezer space is available, it is a good way to save the work for a convenient time.

Peppers can be dried. Some air dry well. Others should be cut in half first. Depending on the humidity by you, a dehydrator may help with this. I've seen them fairly often at Goodwill type stores by me at greatly reduced prices. The dried peppers can be ground into powder or crumbled into pieces for storage and used in cooking. If you dry and grind hot varieties, be careful. The oils on your hands can get transferred into your eyes, etc. and that is no fun. You can grind up small batches of dried pods in an electric coffee grinder....do the hot pepper grinding outdoors and be careful not to get a blast of powder in the face when you open the grinder. Might want to dedicate the grinder to hot peppers or put it through the dishwasher a few times when done. You can combine various types of ground pepper into your own special blends. I hadn't realized that paprika is actually a type of dried ground pepper. I'm going to try to make that this year.

I've heard of some people who trade their veggies with others for other foods or services, ie. my veggies for meals at your restaurant, my veggies for your apples or honey, my veggies for your baked goods. I'm not much of a salesperson/barterer but it sounds like a good plan for many. I have asked neighbors for grass clipping and leaves in exchange for the veggies. Gotta feed the compost bin :)

I have a freezer and it still has an abundance of veggies...plenty to last me until I have a new crop. I chop whatever and blanch it and put it in the freezer...I love to make my own salsa too...I canned some beans and tomatoes...ah there is never too many veggies.

What do I do with garden excess? I sell it at a farmers' market.

This provides me with $$ to buy bananas and oranges thru the Winter.

If I was smart, I'd relocate myself in the Winter to where I could grow more food.

Steve's digits

This time of year I'm really enjoying the stuff I dried -- garlic, peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and even some green beans. The dried things don't take up much space and are really easy to cook with, like convenience foods. I can and freeze veggies, too, but for many things I like drying best.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

As I was going thru the freezer searching for venison sasuage for lasagna- I just found 4 more bags to frozen tomatoes!

I have considered selling off extra's- but I dont think I have enough volume for that. I had not considered drying vegies, will have to look into that.

Thanks for the harvest forum lead.

Happy planting!