What Should I Do With My Glut?
Pick a crop and we will tell you the safe way to keep it.
Tap the crop you have too much of. Each answer uses tested methods, and for low-acid vegetables in an Australian kitchen that usually means the freezer rather than the Fowlers unit.
Tomatoes: Bottle passata with 15 ml bottled lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon citric acid in every jar up to 473 ml (double it up to 946 ml), freeze them peeled for cooking, or dry them at 60°C.
Cucumbers: Pickle from a tested recipe with 5% vinegar (check the label; some sold here are 4%), or ferment dill cucumbers. They do not freeze well.
Best methods: Bottling & jam · Fermenting
Cabbage: Make sauerkraut: 45 ml pickling salt per 2.25 kg cabbage, 21 to 24°C for 3 to 4 weeks.
Best methods: Fermenting · Freezing
Beans: Blanch 3 minutes and freeze. Bottling plain beans needs a pressure canner; a Fowlers unit is not one.
Best methods: Freezing · Bottling & jam
Zucchini: Blanch slices 3 minutes and freeze, steam grated zucchini 1 to 2 minutes for baking, or dry blanched slices.
Best methods: Freezing · Dehydrating
Mangoes: Freeze slices, or puree and dry into fruit leather at 60°C.
Best methods: Freezing · Dehydrating
Citrus: Marmalade (5 minutes in boiling water after filling), or zest and freeze the juice in ice cube trays.
Best methods: Bottling & jam · Freezing
Stone fruit: Bottle hot-packed halves for 20 to 25 minutes, make jam, dry after an acid dip, or freeze.
Berries: Freeze on a tray (best), make jam, or dry into fruit leather.
Herbs: Dry at 35 to 46°C or hang sturdy herbs indoors; freeze sprigs wrapped. Herbs in oil: fridge for no more than 4 days, or freeze.
Best methods: Dehydrating · Freezing
Chillies: Dry and crush, or freeze whole. Hot sauce only from a tested recipe, kept in the fridge.
Best methods: Dehydrating · Freezing
Silverbeet and greens: Blanch 2 minutes, squeeze and freeze.
Best methods: Freezing
Eggs: Keep them in the fridge, unwashed and in the carton. Freeze beaten eggs for longer. Waterglassing is not a tested method.
Best methods: Storing eggs
Apples: Bottle apple sauce (15 to 20 minutes), dry rings after an acid dip, or freeze cooked apple.
Pumpkin: Store cured whole pumpkins somewhere cool and dry, or cook, mash and freeze. Never bottle pumpkin in a water bath.
Best methods: Freezing
Sources we checked (October 2026): Food Safety Information Council; FSANZ; Food Standards Code Standard 2.10.1; NSW Food Authority and SA Health (eggs); USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning and the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
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