| Sunflower, With our tomatoes, if I am making a pasta sauce and have some extra, I will freeze it in jars if I don't have time to can it. Otherwise, I freeze tomatoes whole in 2lb freezer bags. I just bring them in from the garden, wash them off, dry them with a towel, and pop them in the freezer as is. They aren't good for slicing and eating fresh this way, but are great for cooking and canning. This is a great way to store them until I have enough of them (or enough time) to do a canning session. And the bonus is that when they thaw out, the skins just slip right off as if they had been blanched. Sooooo easy! With other veggies, like green beans, carrots, broccoli, etc, I blanch first then flash freeze on a big pizza tray and pack into bags when frozen. With onions, leeks, and peppers, I will just chop or slice and flash freeze and pack, no blanching required. I think gardens and freezers just naturally go together. Fresh veggies are the best, but we never can eat them all before they are past their prime. We have a chest freezer, and I don't think I'd have a garden at all if we didn't have the freezer to go with it. Saves so much time! Plus, if I want to fix something special, or do a canning session, or whatever, my freezer holds things for me until the cooler months when I actually WANT to heat up the kitchen. Hope this helps,
Becki |
