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Your fresh vegetables

© Debra Diana Blue

Every summer, the family I lived with as a child would go down to their home in Brandywine, MD and pick fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden. The Grandmother would clean, cook, can and freeze to her hearts content. I probably wondered why she did all that work - though I remember being sent down to the freezer in the basement to fetch plastic bags from which would come wonderful meals.

I love fresh vegetables, I can't get enough of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against opening a can or a bag of frozen. But I think it's worth the extra effort to cook and freeze my own vegetables. Here's what I've decided to do. Buy fresh, par cook and freeze. So far I've got several bags upon bags of kale and collard greens in the freezer that I bought last Sunday, cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and froze in ziploc bags. My next project is carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. I'm going to make it a weekly project to stock up on my favorite vegetables and spend time freezing them. I'm trying an experiment with mushrooms, someone told me they don't freeze as well, I guess I'll know soon.

If you're interested in freezing food, but like me, haven't got a clue, here are a few sites to get you started:

The National Food Safety Database gives extensive tips about preparing and freezing fresh produce.

The Delaware Cooperative Extension had a site which contains 4 indexes: Freezing vegetables, Canning vegetables, Freezing fruits and Canning fruits. Each section has a table that lists vegetable/fruit, preparation, cooking time and head space.

the University of Illinois' College of Agriculture has a site devoted to freezing and preparing fresh foods. The list of contents include "Packaging and freezing" and "Preparing frozen foods for serving".

I think my project is a worthwhile one and will come in handy when I start going back to school. I know my sons will appreciate it - perhaps they will be so inclined to help me with my homework. Now I suppose the ultimate way to enjoy this would be to have one's own garden. I'll make that my next project. Anyway, I don't have a recipe for this week, but I will share with you what we had for dinner last night. I came in beat as usual, threw some chicken legs in my dutch oven and let them simmer in water and seasonings. Then I threw in fresh mushrooms, broccoli and onions and walked away. About 30 minutes later, I put russet potatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes and POOF, dinner was ready. Ok, not so much a POOF, more like the microwave's 'DING'.

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