Tip of the Day: Freezing Vegetables

Don't leave your car unlocked at church or someone will likely get into it and fill it with zucchini!

It's a real problem. The gardening season is winding down, but you still have more tomatoes and squash than you know what to do with.  It's exciting during the summer when the first vegitables start growing, but when everything ripens at the same time you eventually get more fresh food than you can handle. So what are you going to do with it?

Give it away.  Sharing is always a good idea.
Can it.  A great idea, but can be difficult and time consuming.
Freeze it. That's what I'm doing this year. It takes almost no time or preparation to freeze your garden's surplus. Most things can just be tossed in a freezer bag, and into the freezer, and that's it! Let's look at a few examples.

Tomatoes
Frozen tomatoes are nearly the equivalent of canned tomatoes. When you freeze your tomateos, the cells break down giving them a mush texture. This texture just happens to be perfect for soups and sauces.  If you have more tomatoes than you can use fresh, wash them, pull off the stems, then store them (whole) in a freezer bag. When you are making spaghetti, just pull out a bag and toss it into the blender. It's like opening a couple of cans of stewed tomatoes (only it's free cause it came from your garden!).  All types of tomatoes work, and you can mix them up in the bag together.

Bell Peppers
I don't like peppers. I only grow them cause they look so cute! Occasionally though we do cook with them. Usually we put them on pizza or in fajitas.  So when my peppers get ripe, I slice them into the shape I know I will want to use them in. Then I toss them in a bag in the freezer. Months later, if I'm making a pizza, I can pull out just a few slices at a time and leave the rest for another day. It's better than buying a fresh one at the store (cause it's free!) and I only use what I need, so there is no waste.



Zuchini
There is only so much zucchini bread you can eat in one month. The good news is, you can store that zucchini in the freezer and have it all year long.  I peel it. Shred it. Then store it in two cup increments, so it's ready to take out at a moments notice for fresh backed zucchini bread.  Another bonus of having shredded zucchini on hand is you can toss a bag of it into any casserole as a way to sneak in a vegetable when the kids aren't looking!


Marcia


P.S.  I hope you are freezing like I am this fall!   ;)