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What are good veggies to freeze? or should I say witch ones don't freeze well? I want to plant a garden that I can eat and save for the winter. (zipploc or vaccum pack)

I grow greenbeans, corn tomatoes, orkra, squash, potatos, and peppers? will all of these freeze and thaw with our going to junk?
brad

LOTS of veggies freeze well, but most of them do better after being "blanched."

This is a method of immersing them in boiling water for short periods of time--depending on the vegetable, anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes--to stop enzymatic action. You can then freeze the veggie. When you thaw it later, the veggie will taste fine, but its texture will have changed.

There are many books on preserving foods. Some cookbooks, like The Joy of Cooking, also contain guidelines on food preservation. (Make sure you do NOT get the '80s/early '90s edition of Joy; get the '70s edition or the very recent one from the last year or two.)

I personally have frozen Roma tomatoes, shredded zucchini, cooked pumpkin, and fresh blueberries. Due to my limited growing space, I don't have much "extra" produce for freezing.

I'll check around for other cookbooks I have with blanching/freezing guidelines.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

We freeze everything you listed but potatoes. [Haven't grown them]. Okra doesn't fry well after freezing. In addition, we have frozen butter beans, most kinds of peas and nuts of all kinds. Be sure to freeze corn on and off the cobb. It's great to have it in the winter.

The recent (75th Anniversary Edition, 2006) Joy of Cooking has a five-page discussion on freezing vegetables. I just skimmed it; very well written and detailed. They do not recommend home-freezing of potatoes.

Maybe storage in a root cellar or similar cool, dry, dark location for the spuds would work?

The classic in the field is Putting Food By. However, my used paperback was printed in 1975, and I don't know whether a more recent revision is available. Given the changes in *canning* recommendations since then, I sure hope there's a more recent edition available.

If you're subject to power outages, whether from winter storms or summer ones, maybe Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning (by the Gardeners of Terre Vivante) is more up your alley.

The description in Lehman's catalogue says: "Air drying, lacto-fermentation, or preserving foods in oil, vinegar, salt or sugar. These recipes are unfamiliar and even outlandish, but the aim is to preserve food as close to fresh as possible. The collective effort of over 150 organic gardeners across France and Europe."

Lehman's is located in Ohio in the physical world and at www.Lehmans.com in the virtual world.

Happy eating!

Cynthia

buckbuster,

Green Beans freeze well, we have a bunch in the freezer right now. Cynthia is correct to suggest blanching but there is one additional step that is important. After the blanching period they should be chilled in ice water to stop the cooking. We freeze them in Ziplock bags after draining them.

BTW, be cautious about using canning recipes from old texts, the rules of safety have changed over the years. For instance, my grandmother canned beans without pressure canning, this is no longer considered safe. I'm sure there are many other examples of this sort of thing. You might get by for years without an incident using old techniques but it is better to be safe.

Norm

P.S.

I see Cynthia already cautioned you about 'old recipes'. Sorry I missed it.

Most of the veggies you mentioned freeze well (don't know about Okra) if blanched first as stated by others.

I normally put in about 8/10 tomato plants, of different varieties, so we end up with way more tomatoes than we need. (This year I have about thirty as they are growing wild everywhere.)

When I get several kilos of ripe tomatoes I boil them up, remove the skins, and then stick them in a blender until it is a nice smooth paste.
Some of this I put into plastic containers and freeze as tomato puree.
Some I make into tomato sauce and put into plastic bottles which I also freeze.
I also like to make my own pasta sauce so normally do this at the same time and also freeze.

With pumkins I make soup and freeze.
Apples I stew and freeze.
Carrots cut into "rounds" or "french style" cook and freeze.

Hope this helps.