Garden planning usually starts in the darkest days of winter when you can’t wait for sunshine, warm air and a chance to spend a morning or afternoon outside. There’s something particularly optimistic about January and February garden planning. The plant list begins to grow, you order a few extra interesting seed packets and start eyeballing neglected sunny spots for more space. But then you remember how hard it was to get rid of the tenth pound of zucchini squash, or the tomatoes that went gangbusters then went bad in three days. “No, I should only plant what we can eat before it goes bad,” you tell yourself.

We’re happy to tell you that if you have a Harvest Right freeze dryer, you can dream big. Go ahead, plant that big garden because everything you grow – you can freeze dry. In fact, your goal shouldn’t be to right-size your garden, it should be to super-size your garden. Why buy produce from the supermarket ever again?

There are some vegetables and fruits that just taste better in summer. Tomatoes are at the top of the list. Rehydrated tomatoes are wonderful in fall chili and stews, salsas and when made into pizza or pasta sauce. Grow a truck load of sweet corn if you want, then just cut it off the cob and freeze dry it for salads, side dishes or cornbread later. Squash is wonderful for omelettes, quiche and and stir fry. Don’t forget green beans, eggplant, carrots, garlic and onions. If you’ve got room for berry bushes, plant extra for breakfast yogurt toppings, smoothie mix, oatmeal mix ins, trail mixes and snacks straight out of the bag.

If you’re enlarging your garden so you can freeze dry more, share photos with us on our Facebook page. We’d love to see what you’re planning.