I just came across two blogs about food preservation that look pretty interesting. We've made some jam this year, but haven't done much else in the way of storing food for the winter. We're waiting at this point for our garden to produce some veggies.
Though we do have an insane number of mulberries. We made some spiced mulberry jam, (which is really a syrup) and I'm thinking of freezing some for pancakes and ice cream later in the year, and perhaps even for a winter treat for the chickens. But even these uses don't seem to use up all that is available to us. Anyone have any other ideas?
Food in Jars
Doris and Jilly Cook
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15 years ago
We have given up on canning. The chest freezer is cheap to operate, and honestly power would have to be out for more than 72 hours for anything in it to thaw. So we just automatically freeze everything except for jam.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like doing for tomatoes is just slicing the top off and freezing them whole. When you defrost them the skin and seeds come off quite easily, if you need.
For peppers, I usually roast them on the grill so the skin comes off then freeze that.
I will say if you plan to freeze much, either use a vacuum bagger or don't use a frost-free freezer, or both. Not only does frost-free use a lot of electricity but its the main cause of freezer burn.
Thanks for the shout-out! I hear mulberries make excellent wine (because they're so juicy), but I haven't tried it myself.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for why you should can instead of freeze: forgetfulness. I would never need to can again--EVER--if I could just remember to take things out of the freezer the day before I wanted to eat them. But I can't. Ergo, I can.
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