Gardening: 3 Best Things to Do With Your Garden Harvest

Growing your own food can be very satisfying and rewarding, but what happens when you have too much of a good thing?

Many successful gardeners, even those with small gardens, can be faced with the common problem of having more food than they can eat at once. Pounds of fresh tomatoes, dozens of zucchini, and baskets of string beans can go to waste if you you don’t have a plan.

Special: The Real Truth About Iodized Salt the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

Here are our three best suggestions on how to handle it all.

1. Learn how to can — Canning is one of the best ways to put up food for the winter, and it’s not just for your grandma anymore. According to Growing a Greener World, there has been a surge of interest in canning over the last few years. It is a natural extension of gardening and it provides another way to increase your personal food security. With some special equipment and a little practice, many crops can be put up and stored for up to one year.

Alert: Heart Surgeon's Secret to Healthy Blood Pressure

2. Freeze it — If you have extra freezer space or decide to invest in a small chest freezer for your basement, you can easily store some of your garden abundance for use later. While some crops freeze better than others, PickYourOwn.org has an extensive library of instructions for freezing many fruits and vegetables. You can also make freezer-friendly meals like soups and stews with your garden harvest and freeze them to enjoy later.

3. Donate it — Local food pantries typically collect many types of non-perishable food, but people in need often don’t have access to enough fresh food to achieve a healthy diet. In addition, millions of pounds of fresh food are wasted in homes across American each year. Services like Ample Harvest help solve both problems by connecting local gardeners and urban farmers with local food pantries near them that will accept donations of garden produce.

Doctor: 5 Signs Cancer Is Starting Inside Your Body

Brande Plotnick is an ambitious home cook, gardener, beekeeper, writer, and speaker who started her website, Tomato Envy, to inspire others to find their deliberately decadent life at home. Brande’s down-to-earth style and approachable manner have been winning over the readers who follow her blog. Her work has been featured in Urban Farm Magazine, Natural Awakenings, Mother Earth News, and the Whole Seed Catalog.

• Gardening: 7 Best Plants for Attracting Butterflies
• Gardening: 6 Tips to Grow Beautiful Roses