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Two community gardeners sort a table of fresh vegetables before preserving the harvest.

Community gardens ยท Part 9 of 9

Use and Preserve the Harvest

Five guides for the harvest you cannot eat this week: decide where it goes, then freeze, dry, can or ferment it with tested methods.

See the 5 guides All nine parts

By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival

Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources

Where to start

Who this part is for, and what to read first.

Start with Planning What to Do With Surplus Produce. It sorts a harvest by how long it will keep and by the time and equipment you have, then points to a method.

The four method guides follow. Canning and fermentation rely on tested recipes, so read those two in full before you begin.

A sensible first three

  1. Planning What to Do With Surplus ProduceSort the surplus before you choose a method.
  2. Freezing Garden ProduceFreeze what the freezer can hold.
  3. Safe Home Canning: When to Use USDA/NCHFP Tested MethodsCan only with a tested recipe.

The guides

Use and Preserve the Harvest: 5 guides.

Planning What to Do With Surplus Produce

Triage a garden surplus before it spoils: screen for suitability, put the harvest on a quality clock, route it by capacity and plan each preservation batch.

Read the guide

Freezing Garden Produce

Freeze garden produce well: judge the crop, prepare and package it, plan freezer capacity before harvest day, handle a power outage and thaw food safely.

Read the guide

Dehydrating Garden Produce

Dry garden produce with care: choose a drying method, judge crop fit, pretreat, test for doneness, condition fruit, package for storage and know when to stop.

Read the guide

Safe Home Canning: When to Use USDA/NCHFP Tested Methods

Safe home canning from garden harvests: tested recipes, acid and low-acid foods, pressure and boiling-water canning, altitude, jar seals, storage and botulism.

Read the guide

Fermentation and Pickling: Evidence, Safety and Limits

Tell refrigerator pickles, tested shelf-stable pickles and fermented vegetables apart, and learn what salt, vinegar, temperature and pH can and cannot do.

Read the guide

The rest of the library

The other eight parts.

Part 1 of 9

Start Here

Choose the right responsibility before choosing the next article.

Part 2 of 9

Find and Join

Locate a garden, judge fit, understand obligations and enter intelligently.

Part 3 of 9

Master Your Plot

Build the growing skills that transfer directly to a community plot.

Part 4 of 9

Start a Garden

Build land, access, infrastructure and operating systems before opening day.

Part 5 of 9

Run the Garden

Maintain governance, volunteers, continuity and annual operating discipline.

Part 6 of 9

School and Institutional Gardens

Adapt the system to the host institution and the people it serves.

Part 7 of 9

Community Capacity

Build recurring systems that help gardeners teach, share and maintain useful resources.

Part 8 of 9

Resilience and Failure

Prepare for predictable disruptions and recover without pretending every problem is preventable.

About the author

Dan Whelan is the founder of New World Survival. He and his wife Vicki rode out Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and spent the week after sorting donations at a relief center in Homestead. More than thirty years of household preparedness later, he built this site to pass on what works. Read their story