Homemade Vegetable Broth

It's that time of the year when we are all cleaning out our gardens and prepping them for winter. That is, those of us in the northern part of the country are. We have already had a frost or two and most of the stuff in the garden doesn't look so hot. We had a terrible tomato year, as the spring took forever to warm up and most of the summer weather was less than summery. Cabbage and greens did great, as usual. For prepping the garden, I have been tearing out most of the bigger stuff and just tossing it on top of the ground, then layering hay and straw from the goat barn. 

This year I found an old garbage can (rubber), and my husband cut out the bottom of it. I scrounged around until I found a lid that fit it. I guess finding what you need is a good reason to keep some things around that you normally would dispose of. At any rate, I have placed the bottomless garbage can just outside of my garden (it's fenced in) so that I can easily reach it for putting in garbage scraps and what have you all winter long. The lid is necessary to keep snow out. The can is a blue but I wish I had a black one. I want the stuff to heat up. The theory is that I will have some usable compost come spring.

A couple of weeks ago I gathered up some last of the season produce out of the garden, veggies such as green beans, zucchini, rutabagas (add some zing), oregano, and onions. I had some organic celery from the store, as well as dehydrated morel mushrooms that we found a couple of years ago. 

Throw everything into a large stock pot, cover it with plenty of water, bring it to a boil, and then simmer for a couple of hours. Strain out the veggies, twice if you don't want any "sediment" on the bottom of your jars, and you're ready to can it. 

Vegetable broth is low acid, so I pressure can it. It takes 25 minutes at 10 lbs. pressure for quarts, or 30 minutes for those of us over 1000 feet in altitude. Add 5 minutes for every 1000 feet.

My broth comes out a pretty color due to the mushrooms. This is a good food item to have during the winter and is a great way to use up a little of this and a little of that at season's end.