The Best Vegetables to Can, Freeze, and Freeze-Dry

Start with the method, not the crop

There are five real ways to save a harvest, and each one fits a different kind of crop. Canning is best for acidic crops you want shelf-stable. Freezing is the easiest all-rounder. Drying suits herbs and hot peppers. Freeze-drying is the priciest option but keeps the most. And some crops need no processing at all, just a cool, dark room.

Pick the method that fits the crop, not the gear you happen to own. A freeze dryer is wasted on onions, and a canner is wasted on basil.

Best to can: acidic crops you want on a shelf

High-acid crops can be water-bath canned safely, which is the simplest kind of canning. This is where tomatoes and pickles shine because they store for a year at room temperature with no freezer space.

The math is worth knowing before you plant. A paste tomato yields about 10 pounds per plant, and it takes roughly 3 pounds to fill a quart, so one plant is about three quarts of sauce. A pickling cucumber yields about 5 pounds per plant, and pickles pack about 2 pounds to a quart.

• Paste tomatoes: sauce, crushed, or whole. The top canning crop.
• Pickling cucumbers: quick pickles and dill spears.
• Tomatillos and salsa peppers: salsa verde and hot sauce.
• Low-acid crops like plain green beans and corn need a pressure canner, not a water bath. For most people, freezing those is safer and easier.

Best to freeze: the easy all-rounder

Freezing is the most forgiving method and the right first choice for most crops. There is no canner and no acid math, just a quick blanch and a bag. Green beans yield about 0.75 pound per plant and lima beans about 0.5 pound, and both freeze close to fresh if you blanch them first.

The one downside is that freezing needs power and space. A power outage or a full freezer caps how much you can store, so it is not the method for a whole pantry's worth of one crop.

• Green beans, corn, peas, and broccoli: blanch, then freeze loose.
• Peppers and berries: freeze as is, no blanching.
• Shredded zucchini: freeze in 2-cup packs for bread and soup.
• Skip freezing high-water crops like lettuce, cucumbers, and radishes. They turn to mush.

Best to dry: herbs and hot peppers

Drying removes the water that spoilage needs, and it takes almost no storage space. It is the clear winner for herbs and hot peppers, which lose little when dried and keep their flavor for a year in a jar.

Drying is a poor fit for watery crops like tomatoes or squash unless you want them leathery, so keep it to herbs, chiles, and the occasional batch of okra chips.

• Herbs: basil, oregano, thyme, dill, and mint dry and crumble into jars.
• Hot peppers: dry whole, then grind to flakes or powder.
• Okra and mushrooms: dry into snacks or soup add-ins.

Best to freeze-dry: high-value crops, if you own the machine

A home freeze dryer keeps more flavor, color, and nutrition than any other method, and the food lasts up to 25 years sealed. The catch is the price. A machine runs well over a thousand dollars and a batch takes 20 to 40 hours, so it only pays off if you preserve a lot every year.

If you have one, aim it at the crops that reward it most: berries, sweet corn, peas, and herbs. For onions or potatoes, cellar storage does the same job for free.

• Berries and sweet corn: keep their taste better than any other method.
• Peas and green beans: rehydrate for soups and sides.
• Herbs: keep their color and oils.

Best to just store: crops that need no processing

Some crops store for months with no canning, freezing, or drying at all. They only need a cool, dark, dry room. This is the cheapest preservation there is, and it is easy to overlook.

Winter squash yields about 12 pounds per plant and keeps for months on a shelf. Onions and garlic keep all winter once cured. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets hold in a cool spot or a bin of damp sand.

• Winter squash and pumpkins: cure one to two weeks, then shelf-store.
• Onions and garlic: cure until the skins are papery, then hang or bin.
• Potatoes, carrots, and beets: cool, dark, and slightly humid.

What is not worth preserving

A few crops are best eaten fresh and planted in small, staggered batches instead of saved. Lettuce, salad cucumbers, radishes, and most tender greens go limp or watery no matter the method. Rather than preserve them, use succession planting so you harvest a little at a time and never face a glut.