Preserving the Fall Harvest for Winter

Apples, pears, plums, herbs, and the colorful early-fall vegetable harvest: Now we get to enjoy the bounty once again. A lot of hard work and care goes into this variety—whether from your own garden, your favorite farm stand, or local producers—as the plants have been nurtured and tended throughout the summer. With a few simple methods, you can preserve the flavors of summer and enjoy them weeks or even months later. We’ll show you six ways to do this, along with a recipe to get you started right away, so you can bring the season’s treasures to your plate in all their glory.

Dehydrating: Flavorful Snacks

Drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving food. What used to be done by the sun and dry air is now handled in a controlled and uniform manner by a food dehydrator. During the drying process, fruits, vegetables, or herbs are slowly stripped of most of their moisture. This not only extends their shelf life but also often intensifies their flavors.

Dehydration is particularly versatile when used with apples, pears, plums, grapes, and berries, as well as tomatoes, beets, bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, squash, carrots, onions, garlic, and mushrooms.

Assorted Dried Vegetable Flakes

Ingredients

2 tomatoes
2 carrots
1 beetroot
1 bell pepper
½ zucchini

Preparation

Wash the vegetables, cut them into slices or strips as thinly and evenly as possible, and pat them dry thoroughly. Cut the vegetables as uniformly and thinly as possible so that similar-sized pieces dry at roughly the same time. If possible, place each type of vegetable on a separate dehydrator tray. This allows you to remove each tray as soon as its contents are fully dry.
After dehydrating, allow everything to cool completely. Then place the dried vegetable pieces in a blender or food processor and pulse until they reach the desired size. For a finer vegetable seasoning, simply blend a little longer.
Important: the vegetables must be completely dry before blending and should be brittle rather than flexible. Residual moisture makes them harder to grind and can later cause clumping or spoilage.
Perfect for minestrone, risotto, pasta sauces, lentil stew, couscous, stir-fried vegetables, or as a base for a quick vegetable broth. Different herbs and spices give the mixture a new character every time.

Filling: Glass jar with wort

We’re all familiar with pickled cucumbers. But there are plenty of other garden treasures that thrive in a vinegar brine. During the pickling process, the acidity inhibits the growth of many microorganisms. At the same time, the flavorful brine transforms the taste of fresh vegetables, turning them into a whole new side dish. Depending on the recipe, salt, a little sugar, herbs, and spices are added to give the dish a personal touch.

Pickled Radishes

Ingredients

Ingredients for 1 jar of approx. 6 dl

250 g radishes
1.5 dl apple cider vinegar
2 dl water
20 g sugar
10 g salt
10 g mustard seeds

Source/Inspiration: SRF, Radish Pickles

Preparation

Wash the radishes thoroughly and remove the greens. Leave them whole, halve them, or slice them depending on the desired appearance.
Place the radishes in a thoroughly cleaned jar rinsed with hot water.
Bring the apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, salt and mustard seeds to a boil.
Pour the hot brine over the radishes until fully covered.
Seal the jar immediately and allow it to cool.
Then refrigerate and leave to marinate for at least one day.

Preserving: Fruit delights in a jar

When preserving food, heating and proper bottling are key to extending its shelf life. For jam or syrup, the sugar content also plays a crucial role. When processed and sealed properly, jam can be stored for several months.

Plums are simply a staple of late summer and early fall. When made into jam, their sweet-and-tart flavor can be enjoyed long after the harvest.

Zwetschgen-Zimt-Konfitüre

Ingredients

600 g pitted plums
300 g jam sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp cinnamon

Preparation

Wash the plums, cut them in half, remove the pits and chop into small pieces.
For a smoother jam, briefly blend the plums using a hand blender. For a chunkier texture, simply skip this step.
Place the plums, jam sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon into the bread maker pan.
Start the jam programme and sit back: the bread maker takes care of both heating and stirring. The Trisa Electronics “Le Bistro” features a dedicated jam programme. Meanwhile, prepare clean jars.
Once the programme is finished, ladle the hot jam directly from the removable baking pan into the jars, ideally using a filling funnel. Seal immediately.
Allow to cool completely.

Vacuum Sealing: The most organized way to keep food fresh

Sometimes you just want to store fresh food a little longer or prepare it in advance for your next meals. This is exactly where vacuum sealing comes in. The process involves removing the air from the packaging. This allows you to store many foods safely while saving space.

If you already know what you’ll be serving in the next few days, you can plan a step ahead when preparing your meals. Vegetables like zucchini, bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, or onions can be washed, cut, and portioned to fit your planned meals. Meat can also be prepared separately and vacuum-sealed—already marinated, for example.

This way, the ingredients wait in the fridge, neatly packaged and ready to use, and part of the work is already done. Whether you’re making quick oven-roasted vegetables, a vegetable stir-fry, or another favorite dish, all you have to do when cooking is take out the right portion.

If you don’t plan to use the prepared food within the next few days, you can take this approach a step further: Many foods can be vacuum-sealed and placed directly in the freezer, even if they’ve been pre-cooked as part of meal prep.

Freezing: Small Portions, Large Supplies

Freezing is probably one of the easiest ways to preserve seasonal ingredients for later use. It’s practical to freeze them in small portions: that way, you can take out exactly the amount you need later on.

Freshness on ice: Freezing is one of the best ways to preserve the nutrients in fruits and vegetables for longer. Since the food isn’t exposed to prolonged heat, many valuable nutrients are well preserved. This makes it ideal for saving some of your September harvest for the coming months.

Basil Pesto in Small Portions

Ingredients

50 g basil
30 g pine nuts
40 g grated hard cheese
1 small garlic clove
approx. 80 ml olive oil

Preparation

Prepare the basil and dry it thoroughly.
Place the basil, pine nuts, grated hard cheese and garlic in a blender.
Gradually add the olive oil and blend until the desired consistency is reached.
Transfer the pesto into small freezer-safe containers.
Seal, label and place in the freezer.
And pesto does not have to be the only thing stored in the freezer: chopped herbs, fruit purée and small portions of sauces can also be frozen in convenient individual servings.

Fermentation: Milk Becomes Yogurt

Fermentation is anything but a new food trend. For thousands of years, people have been using microorganisms to transform food and make it last longer. Today, this natural process can be precisely controlled—for example, in the production of yogurt.

While many fermentation methods take place at room temperature, traditional yogurt cultures prefer significantly warmer conditions. The constant temperature of around 40 °C in the La Cremeria Plus creates the ideal conditions for this.

We don’t have to make everything ourselves. But some things taste especially good precisely because we made them ourselves.

Herbstlicher Apple-Crumble-Joghurt

Ingredients

For the yoghurt

750 ml milk
30 g yoghurt or 1 tsp lactic acid bacteria culture

For the apple crumble topping

2 apples
½ tsp cinnamon
40 g rolled oats
20 g chopped walnuts
1 tsp honey or maple syrup, to taste
Cocoa powder and chopped nuts for garnish

Preparation

Ferment the milk with yoghurt or a lactic acid bacteria culture using the yoghurt mode of the La Cremeria Plus (approx. 8 hours), then allow it to cool completely. The machine maintains a constant temperature of around 40 °C during fermentation.
Slice the apples thinly and gently cook them with the cinnamon in a pan until softened. Leave to cool.
Lightly toast the rolled oats and walnuts in a pan. Add a little honey or maple syrup if desired and allow to cool.
Divide the chilled homemade yoghurt between serving glasses or jars.
Top with the cinnamon apples and crumble. Just before serving, decorate with a few chopped nuts and a dusting of cocoa powder.

The season comes to an end, but the enjoyment remains

Drying, preserving in jars, vacuum-sealing, or freezing: There are many ways to enjoy seasonal foods for longer while adding variety to your cooking. However, the best foundation for any preservation method remains the same: fresh ingredients, careful preparation, and the joy of doing it yourself.

And perhaps now is exactly the right time to take another look at what your garden, the market, or the farm stand has to offer. With the right kitchen tools, you can enjoy the bounty of summer well into the fall.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about preserving food in autumn

Key answers about shelf life, nutrients and suitable appliances at a glance.

How long do home-preserved foods keep?

Shelf life depends on the preservation method, the type of food, hygienic preparation and proper storage. Fresh ingredients, thoroughly cleaned containers and clean work surfaces are particularly important. Suitable foods are filled directly into containers while still hot, and the containers are then carefully sealed. Foods stored in a cool, dry and dark place or kept frozen generally last longer; unusual smells, mould or bulging lids are warning signs.

Are nutrients retained after preserving food?

How well nutrients are retained depends mainly on temperature, processing time, exposure to oxygen and storage conditions. Heat-sensitive vitamins may decrease with prolonged or intense heating, while minerals and dietary fibre generally remain more stable. Processing food as fresh and gently as possible and storing it appropriately help preserve its quality as effectively as possible.

Which preservation method is suitable for which purpose?

Freezing is well suited to simple food storage, drying to compact and dry foods, and pickling or preserving to long-lasting products stored in jars. Fermentation changes flavour and texture through microorganisms, while vacuum sealing reduces the amount of air around food and is particularly useful as a complement to refrigeration or freezing.

Which appliances do I need to preserve food?

A food dehydrator is particularly useful for drying, a vacuum sealer reduces contact with air, and blenders or food choppers make preparation easier. Many kitchen appliances can also support food preservation through useful additional functions, even if this is not their main purpose – for example, a bread maker with suitable programmes for jam or other preparations.

What should you consider when choosing an appliance for preserving food?

Size, capacity and range of functions are particularly important. Compact appliances are suitable for smaller quantities, while greater capacity can be useful when preserving larger amounts of food. Versatile appliances with functions that can also be used for food preservation offer additional value by supporting several different preparation steps in the kitchen.