You read that right.
Shucking the corn, cutting the corn off, washing and chopping summer squash and zucchini, coring and chopping tomatoes. There was no blanching needed. Into BPA-free freezer bags and into our chest freezer. Granted, I think I have some pretty good knife skills after cooking for so many years, but even a newbie could do it.
If I were to buys 7 bags of organic frozen vegetables at $2.49 per bag that would equal $17.43 (I have not mentioned yet that I love numbers). Think of the money I would be throwing away if I did not use all my vegetables and then turned around and bought them at the grocery store in the winter!
As part of Crossroads Community Farm in Cross Plains,Wisconsin I receive a lot of veggies! Add to that my love of gardening, and we now have twice as many vegetables in the growing season. For anyone new to gardening or a vegetable CSA (community supported agriculture), this can be VERY overwhelming! I remember when I worked at a CSA and I had the opportunity to bring home as many vegetables as I could, especially when we had extras. I hated wasting anything! So, I would bring things home and get all stressed out about trying to eat everything. Slowly I learned about preserving food. I tried canning, but decided that was not for me. I will still can salsa in the summer, but other then that I freeze everything I can.
We decided to buy a medium sized chest freezer so that we could freeze local vegetables and meat. In the early years when I was still a vegetarian it was mostly vegetables. My poor husband yearned for meat in the freezer, but since I was the main grocery shopper and cook in our family, I kind of forgot he was a meat eater.
Lucky for him I now eat meat in addition to vegetables. I actually asked him during one of my early re-entry into meat eating dinners if he still loved me even though I eat meat now (this was a joke of course). Like a good husband he replied, " I think I love you even more!"
In our chest freezer you will now find local and/or organic meat and vegetables. You will also find frozen pesto that I make and some popsicles (because it is a freezer and it is summer, duh). When I am a nice wifey and mother you may also find a few frozen pizzas (again something I forget to buy as I do not eat them). But that is it. What you won't find is prepackaged food, to me that would be a waste of electricity. I have nothing against some of the frozen meals, and have even been know to pick up a few Amy's meals for our freezer. But those go into our regular refrigerator freezer. I won't let them take up my precious chest freezer space.
If you find yourself with too many vegetables, a quick web search will give you suggestions on how to preserve them. If you want beautiful rows of canned goods displayed on shelves, go for it! If you are in a hurry and have the space, freeze them! Make sure to do a little research on what you are preserving as some things do not freeze well or will want to be blanched first.
Oh, and what will I do with the vegetables above? The corn can be cooked and used alone or in other dishes. The tomatoes will be used in place of canned tomatoes in soup and chili in the winter. The summer squash and zucchini will be used in soup, where it will hide from my daughter who does not like it!
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