Freezing fruit and other things.

Freezing fruits and veggies when they are in their peak season is one of  the best ways to take advantage of good deals at your farmer's market, process your own garden bonanzas and stock up on your favorites for later.

We try to eat only the fruits and veggies that are in season in our area. To help expand our menus during the leaner months we do a lot of freezing this time of year. We do have a dedicated freezer in our garage. It's the size a washing machine and well worth the initial expense.

Here is my favorite trick: freeze your fruit, veggies, whatever, flat on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet or baking pan. This way each berry freezes individually.

 When they have completely frozen, transfer them into labeled and dated freezer bags.

We keep a list of everything in our back freezer and check off what we take out, no mystery items for us !!

Recently Bob discovered he could freeze his wild boar sausage patties this way. My brother uses it to freeze his snow peas and sugar peas. With veggies like that it's usually a good idea to blanch them first in boiling water. With some fruit like peaches, pears and apples, use lemon juice or vitamin C to prevent them from turning brown.

I loved roasted bell peppers, so when they are very inexpensive at my farmer's market, I roast large batches of them, freeze then individually on the cookie sheet. This makes them so easy to use in soup, stews, casseroles. The same goes for fresh tomatoes, I core and peel them, then freeze them whole. It's nice to be able to use one or two rather than a whole jar of canned tomatoes.