In The Garden

Original Air Date: July 28, 2018 Why Freeze? Freezing your harvest is easy and rewarding.  I recommend it for everyone.  My own personal favorite is freezing Pesto; I make and freeze 30 - 1 cup containers for the winter from 16 plants that fill a 4x4 bed.  It is simple to make and freeze and get rewarded every week throughout the winter. Tomatoes are ridiculously easy to freeze.  I wash them, fill a gallon bag and throw them in the freezer.  When I’m ready to use them as soon as they begin to thaw I slip off the skins so there is no peeling.  In this case freezing is temporary storage until I use the tomatoes to can Salsa in a big batch.  What to Freeze We freeze soup stocks, apple cider, shitake mushrooms and tons of greens from kale, collards and swiss chard and some years when we have plenty we freeze spinach too. We also freeze peppers, beans, broccoli, and cauliflower when we have a good harvest (but dry our hot peppers). Most vegetables need to be ‘blanched’ before they are frozen.  Blanching is a quic