welcome to the village green preservation society

If you've started a garden by following my method, wherein you plant things, forget to label, and then have to plant everything over again to make sure that you're not missing this year's crop of pickles-in-training, you're likely to have a surplus of a lot of random things. This, of course, begs the question, "What exactly am I supposed to do with ten pounds of ?"

I thought that now would be a decent enough time to answer that question, so I will... in alphabetical order.

Bean (shelling) - shell and freeze.
Bean (string) - wash and freeze in pod.
Beets - can be juiced, dehydrated, pickled, or canned.
Cabbage - I hope you like saurkraut, which is easy enough to make if you don't mind the smell. you can also make kimchee, which is packed with painfully large amounts of vitamins and nutrients (more on these later)
Carrots - first off, carrots keep for months, but if you somehow have extra, they can be juiced, sliced and canned, grated/sliced and frozen, thinly sliced and dehydrated (try marinating for a potato chip alternative)
Corn (grinding) - take it off the cob, dry it out, and grind it down. in big pieces, it's hominy, slightly smaller pieces, it's grits, and too much smaller, and you have corn meal on your hands. it keeps for a loooooong time.
Corn (popping) - you shouldn't need me to tell you that you'd take it off the cob and then pop it later when you're ready to eat it.
Corn (sweet) - remove from the cob and freeze. you can also throw it into cornbread or muffins and then freeze those.
Crookneck squash - wash, dry, slice and freeze or thinly slice and dehydrate (try marinating for a potato chip alternative)
Cucumbers - best when pickled, as they'll keep indefinitely, and pickles are easy to make, but can also be juiced.
Eggplant - wash, dry, slice and freeze. If you're planning on making eggplant parmesan, go ahead and slice, salt, bread, and then freeze.
Lettuce - you're pretty much screwed, because it's not going to keep. just eat it.
Pepper (hot) - can be dried and ground (see chipotle or chili powder) or stuffed, breaded and frozen for an instant party snack
Pepper (sweet) - can be dried and ground (see paprika) or stuffed, breaded and frozen for an instant party snack
Soybeans - you can wash, dry and freeze them in the pod, shell them and freeze them, or make soy milk or tofu. (they'll get their own entry later)
Tomatillo - Mostly good for salsas, the tomatillo can also be pureed and canned for those nights late in the winter where you're craving something to spice up your homemade enchiladas.
Tomato - where to start? you can can and make tomato sauce, paste, diced tomatoes, stewing tomatoes, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, salsa... or you can slice and dehydrate, sun-dry, or juice.
Zucchini - wash, dry, slice and freeze or or thinly slice and dehydrate (try marinating for a potato chip alternative)

I know you're thinking, "But if I store all that extra food in my freezer, I won't have to buy vegetables for the rest of the year!"

Yes. That's the idea.