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‘Tis the Season for Fresh Produce and Freezing By Melissa J Wantuck  |
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 Farmer’s markets and roadside produce stands are open for business with fresh produce. This is a great time of year to take advantage of all of the local food available to you and consider freshening up your daily meals and stashing some extra foods in cans and in your freezer.
The idea of freezing or canning sounds daunting but with little effort you can continue to eat produce that’s healthy for you throughout the year. So how do you get started? Start by freezing produce as it’s a simpler process than canning.
We have some tips and tricks to help you out if you’re a first-time produce freezer.
Here is a basic list of supplies:
Book or recipes on freezing fruits and vegetables
Large stock pot
Steamer basket
Colander
Quart-size freezer bags
Permanent marker
Our recommendation for a book on freezing fruits and vegetables is the Fannie Farmer cookbook. It provides the steps needed to prepare various fruits and vegetables before freezing them. Check out the book at your local bookstore and if it doesn’t fit your needs, there are many others that you can browse until you find the resource that’s right for you.
As you buy your produce, ask the vendor if any pesticides, powders or sprays were used as the produce was raised. You may want to avoid buying some produce that has been heavily sprayed as the taste may stay with it and you don’t want to harm yourself. If sprays were used, these foods will need an extra scrubbing to remove any residue from their outer surface.
Produce should be cleaned, prepared and frozen right away, but if you can’t get to it immediately, be sure to store it in your fridge to prevent it from rotting and losing your investment. Cleaning is especially important of vegetables—like broccoli and cauliflower—that were not sprayed to repel bugs and insects. Pests that feed on vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower can be hard to spot so careful cleaning is important.
If you’re freezing certain fruits and vegetables that will be used in specific recipes, measure the amount needed for the recipe and mark label the freezer bag using the permanent marker. The label should include what the food is, recipe name, amount, and date of freezing. For example, if you’re freezing zucchini for making zucchini bread shred the zucchini and measure the needed amount into the freezer bag. Another example is for squash. It can be cooked down and mashed then frozen.
Label each bag you freeze including the name of the food, amount and date frozen. You might think as you put the bags together you won’t have a problem discerning between the different foods, but once items have frozen, you may not be able to recognize them.
Squeeze as much air out of the freezer bags as you can before you place them in the freezer. Air in the bags can affect the freezing process, risking freezer burn and the buildup of moisture in the bag before the food freezes, drying out the food too much.
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