How to Freeze Fruits and Vegetables
There is nothing like the test of a fresh-from-your-garden tomato in July. But what about a month later and you’ve made all the salads, sandwiches and quiches you can muster, and you’ve shared abundantly with your friends and family, and the tomatoes are still coming in strong? We recently interviewed Katie Schlagheck from OSU Extension Family and Consumer Science to learn about some easier ways to save that surplus of garden items.
If you’re not ready to take on water bath or pressure canning quite yet, freezing is a good option that generally only involves a few steps.
The first thing to note is that not all items are good for freezing, such as items that have high water content (lettuce and cucumbers come to mind). But if you have fruits or vegetables that you want to freeze, be sure to pick them at their peak of ripeness for best results. We’re going to talk about blanching items before freezing, but in most cases, you don’t need to blanch fruits before freezing them.
Blanching stops enzyme growth which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture. The process involves dipping a basket of vegetables in a big pot of boiling water for a brief amount of time depending on what the vegetable is. The University of Georgia Extension Office has a helpful list of times for various vegetables https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/blanching.html. Immediately after taking the vegetables out of the boiling water, put them in ice cold water until they cool.
Once the vegetables are cooled, you can put them in a hard plastic container (stronger than a butter or cool whip container) or freezer baggie in the freezer. Make sure to leave space at the top of the container or baggie as things expand when they freeze.
If you want to freeze fruits or veggies individually (instead of as a clump altogether) you can put them in the freezer spaced out on a cookie sheet. Once they are frozen, you can then put them in a container or baggie to store in the freezer.
Now you have a nice supply of fruits and veggies for soups, casseroles, pies and smoothies to last through the winter.
