One of my big summer goals was to get some food canned and sent off to our little village home in Alaska. It’s really tough to get anything fresh or frozen in the village, but it can be done if we buy it in Anchorage and ship it in. Canning food is something that has previously worked well for me, and it is something that I enjoy doing. In the past, I have canned berries, fireweed, and salsa. When we get back to the village this year, I’ll be canning all of those things and I’ll also be canning and smoking salmon for the first time this year (yay!!). Due to the difficulty of getting fresh veggies though, I’d really like to preserve a few things and ship them back.

I think I’d like my first project to be canning some zucchini because we have SO MUCH of it. The garden at my mom’s house is producing a ton, and then my dad’s neighbor has been giving away tons of it too. On top of that, there seems to be a farm stand every few feet this summer, and they are all giving away zucchini for a very low price. Since zucchini is one of my absolute favorite foods, this has been a great thing. I’ve been eating lots of fresh zucchini and my mom has been freezing a lot of it for use this winter (zucchini bread…yummmm!), but fresh and frozen won’t work for me. I need things that can be shipped via USPS in an 18-gallon rubbermaid tote, and whatever it is needs to be able to survive up to 4 weeks of uncontrolled temperatures. Hence, the interest in canning some veggies this summer.

After consulting Google, I’ve found quite a few canning recipes for zucchini. As with anything on the internet though, I’m hesitant to trust it blindly. I’d much rather hear some personal experiences from others who have tried and been successful at it. So, have any of you, the wonderful readers, ever tried canning zucchini? If so, how did you do it? How did you prepare it for meals? I’d love to hear from you and get some advice!