stocking the larder

Autumn has always been my favorite season -- trees changing colors, kids playing in piles of leaves, pumpkin farms, apple picking, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and my birthday; what's not to love?

But I have been feeling depressed lately, and find that for the first time in my life, my emotional reaction to the end of summer and the onset of fall is ... dread. It's a strange feeling for me this time of year.

So one of the things I'm doing lately is trying to get my hands on whatever fruits and vegetables are still around and suitable for freezing, to help me get through the long, dark, root-vegetable-stew-filled winter nights to come. I've been using a recent Cook's Illustrated article on how to freeze fresh produce as my guide.

So far I have blanched and frozen a few pounds of asparagus, corn on the cob, and diced red/orange/and/yellow peppers (I love them in turkey tetrazini, but don't love paying $5/lb for them in the winter). I've frozen a few quarts of raspberries and strawberries in sugar syrup. I have green peas and peaches on hold in the refrigerator waiting to get frozen. And today I bought the last local bunches of basil I could find, with the intent of making some homemade pesto. (Will it freeze well? is one of my questions. Or should I blanch and freeze the basil leaves, and make the pesto later? But then the leaves will be all mushy, so, my guess is no.)

I'm also yielding a bit to the coming of fall by buying some different kinds of apples. I realized I love apple cider and I occasionally enjoy eating a tasty, juicy apple, but (a) I am not into eating a huge quantity of raw apples, and (b) I am not into baking apple pies. So the first batch of too many apples that I bought, I made into applesauce -- my first time making it at home, and it turned out very nicely. Will that freeze well, d'ya think, or should I eat that now?

I realize it doesn't make sense to buy fresh and go to the trouble of freezing things that are available year round in the frozen food case in the grocery store. So I'm trying to focus on fruits and vegetables that will be much less available and thus more expensive in the winter than they are now.

Just curious, is anyone else doing the same, freezing summer fruits and vegetables for use in the winter? If so, what are you freezing, and how, and what will you do with it later? On the other hand, what kinds of things do you consider are available frozen year-round at a sufficiently good price that it's not worh the trouble to freeze your own?

We talked about basil and pesto in some other thread, but here's where I finally came out and I've been very happy with it-- puree the basil with as little olive oil as it takes to make it gooey, and scoop into a small plastic bag. Press flat so both sides of the mixture are in contact with plastic. Freeze. You can break off chunks as needed, defrost and mix with more olive oil, garlic, salt and cheese, and it comes out very flavorful.

I do like to make pies, also ice cream, so I have several kinds of fruit put away for future pie/ice cream use.

Great topic Katie!

My family has been freezing for a few years, to enable us to eat local all year round. We've had great success. I find little loss of quality (for cooked product). The only vegetables that don't freeze well are really watery things like cukes, zukes and eggplants. Otherwise, we've been blanching and freezing all sortsa stuff including peas, asparagus, greens (tons), green beans, and corn. I should add that it's worth freezing celery for use in stocks and soups even though you will lose all of the celery texture after the freezing.

In the past, we've frozen more fruit. We've found that we just don't use enough of the frozen fruit.

Beyond freezing, there's other ways of storing. With some tinkering, you can store, for a few to several months, many of the following: carrots, cabbage, kohrabi, grapes, apples, pears, tomatoes, potaoes, cauliflowers, rhutabagas, beets, turnips, ground cherries, winter squash, parsnips, celery root and onions. The key for everything except the onions and the squash is to have a place that is relatively moist and pretty cold. Onions and squash like it a bit warmer and with nary a drop of water.

In hindsight, I should have bought about twice the quantity of freezer-suitable things that I did buy at the nearest farmers' market, with an eye to stocking up for the winter. Next year I'll try to be more foreward thinking.

The nearest farmers' market to me was a big disappointment last week; has that been your recent experience with yours too? Not that I can blame them; when things are out of season, they're out of season. It's my fault for missing the boat earlier this summer.

I'm still thinking about things that are available, but at exorbitant cost, in the winter. The other day I bought some 2.5-lb bundles of asparagus at Costco for somewhere between $3 and $4. Meanwhile, my local Sunset is selling asparagus for upwards of $5/pound. There's my idea of a freezing opportunity.

I wonder if I'm wasting my time freezing fruits. Commercially frozen blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries always seem to be available. Peaches, not so much.

Off to prep some basil for pesto. Thanks for the tips.

Vital Information wrote: I should add that it's worth freezing celery for use in stocks and soups even though you will lose all of the celery texture after the freezing.

I've been wondering about how celery would freeze. I'm not going to eat celery raw anyway; I only plan to use it in miripoix. My question is, does it cost any less now than it does in the winter, which is to say, is it worth the trouble to try to freeze it now?

In the past, we've frozen more fruit. We've found that we just don't use enough of the frozen fruit.

I'm the same way. I don't ever go through much fruit, fresh or frozen, compared to vegetables. But I do fantasize about fruit cobbler in the winter, so I think I'd like to have a few bags of berries and peaches on hand.

Beyond freezing, there's other ways of storing. With some tinkering, you can store, for a few to several months, many of the following: carrots, cabbage, kohrabi, grapes, apples, pears, tomatoes, potaoes, cauliflowers, rhutabagas, beets, turnips, ground cherries, winter squash, parsnips, celery root and onions. The key for everything except the onions and the squash is to have a place that is relatively moist and pretty cold. Onions and squash like it a bit warmer and with nary a drop of water.

Moist and cool, that describes my garage, so i might try to see how long I can hold on to carrots, apples, beets, parsnips, and onions out there. I'm open to more tips. Store things in plastic bins, open to the air? In straw? In brown paper bags? As for cost -- will the carrots and beets and parsnips I buy now cost any less then the ones I find in the store in the winter?

I've had very good luck with grill-roasting and pureeing tomatillos, then freezing in large zip-top bags for later use in salsas.

I've done the same with jalapenos and habaneros -- the texture suffers, but the flavor and heat really don't. Grating a frozen pepper on a microplane works well to zing up a dish such as a salad dressing or a weak salsa. Just remember not to rub your eyes or pick your nose.

Past pepper pickling was a waste -- I just don't eat pickled peppers much.

Note that this is all garden-related bounty preservation. I've never bought stuff from markets with the express purpose of keeping it through the winter -- I just don't think locovore enough yet (not that the asparagus you're getting in September comes from less than 3000 miles away anyway)

[quote="Mike G"]puree the basil with as little olive oil as it takes to make it gooey, and scoop into a small plastic bag. Press flat so both sides of the mixture are in contact with plastic. Freeze. You can break off chunks as needed, defrost and mix with more olive oil, garlic, salt and cheese, and it comes out very flavorful.

I use a similar method. However, I freeze mine in little plastic ice cube trays. Once frozen, you can store the cubes in a ziploc bag and just pull out a cube as you need it.

Jyoti

Katie wrote:

Vital Information wrote: I should add that it's worth freezing celery for use in stocks and soups even though you will lose all of the celery texture after the freezing.

I've been wondering about how celery would freeze. I'm not going to eat celery raw anyway; I only plan to use it in miripoix. My question is, does it cost any less now than it does in the winter, which is to say, is it worth the trouble to try to freeze it now?

I cut up the celery like I would if I were going to use it right away (for mirepoix) and then throw it in a baggie. When I need it, I just scoop out what I want - it breaks apart easily.

It's not that celery gets expensive, it's more that I only use a little at a time and I felt badly throwing out the rest - now I just buy it a couple times a year! I do the same thing with red bell peppers - I hate them raw but need them for a few things so I freeze what I don't use right away.

Also, I use frozen fruit for smoothies.

My mom freezes whole tomatoes - blanch and peel them and then freeze.

Lately I froze some whole cobs of corn. I boiled them, cut the corn off, put the cobs back in the water to make stock, and then made corn chowder.

This has nothing to do with vegetables, but when we buy bagels we cut them in half and then freeze them - you can put them directly into the toaster this way.

Have fun!

Thought I'd rejuvenate this thread to ask about some spring and summer matters. I am wondering lately if there's a better way to store potatoes, onions, and other root vegetables than the way I have been storing them, which is to say, socking them away in whatever small dark corners I could find in the cabinets of my small kitchen.

Right now, in mid May, my garage is much cooler than the kitchen is. I've been thinking about setting up some bins out there for onions and different kinds of potatoes. I wonder if this will turn out to be a bad idea when summer comes. It's been so long, I barely remember last summer, but I have a vague recollection of the interior of the garage at some point becoming warmer than the interior of the house.

Does anyone have a good year-round solution to the quest for a modern-day equivalent of a root cellar. No basement in this house, by the way. I wish.

I have ours in the bottom drawer by the sink cabinet, which is probably the coolest cabinet in the house - but my other tip is that whenever I find a desiccant packet (those little things in pill bottles labeled "do not eat") I put it into an onion bag in the same drawer that I've saved for that purpose. It still gets hot, but at least in theory it's less humid in the drawer...it seems to help.

Alton Brown suggests keeping root vegetables in bins of moist sand in your fridge, but he must have a huge fridge. (Also potatoes convert their starch to sugar if they get too cool, and become oddly sweet. They'll convert back if you leave them at room temp. for a day or two, but that involves planning.)

I long ago learned that, for me, it's a mistake to store potatoes in out-of-the-way places. Since my kitchen is in the center of the house and relatively dark unless I'm cooking (and not as bright as I'd like it even then), I just keep potatoes and onions in a tiered hanging basket. That way, I can usually remember to use them before they remind me they're around.

I'm returning to this thread as stocking up for the coming cold season is on my mind. Recently I bought a LOT of bell peppers - red, yellow, and gold, ten each, to dice up and freeze for use later. The local Garden Fresh Market had reds for 89 cents a pound and yellows and golds for 99 cents a pound. I'm glad to know that a few months from now when I see them in Jewel or Dominicks for $3.99 or $4.99 a pound I'll feel all frugal and satisfied that I bought them much cheaper and chopped them up and froze them back in September.

I didn't buy any green bell peppers, because, as a recent Trib article said, no one in human history ever said, what I'd really like to eat right now is a green bell pepper. My thoughts exactly.

I followed the advice of some other posters and, whenever I bought celery this summer and used it in a recipe, I diced up and froze the rest of the bunch for later use.

I haven't had much chance to get to the nearest farmer's market this year, but I hope I can make up for it by keeping my eyes open for seasonal bargains this time of year and freezing vegetables I'm going to be craving later, in the dark depths of stew season.

I've tried blanching and freezing asparagus, but the thawed results were disappointingly mushy. Perhaps I did something wrong.

I read in a newspaper article recently that apples could be kept in a cooler for months after picking. Does anyone have any experience (recently, not back in the war years, I mean) with long-term apple storage? If it's feasible, I'll dedicate a camper cooler to the task and find a cool, quiet, dark corner of the garage to put it. How cool do I have to keep it?

And I'm cranking up my freezing containers of spaghetti sauce, tikka masala, soups, tetrazinis, lasagnas, etc., especially if they're rich in summer vegetables, for dinners later.

I think I'm the kind of person that would like to have a root cellar. Not a common house feature these days. I've been thinking about how, if at all, I could make part of the garage my root cellar. Right now it seems it's warmer in the garage than in the house, but that will change soon. I know you have to keep the onions away from the potatoes and both away from the apples, but that's about all I know.

Anyone else thinking of stocking-up strategies yet? I realize we're only a few days into autumn...

Katie wrote:...and yellows and golds for 99 cents a pound...

I have never seen gold bell peppers. Are you referring to the orange bell peppers

Katie wrote:I read in a newspaper article recently that apples could be kept in a cooler for months after picking.

In my experience, the varieties of apples that store well are readily available in supermarkets in midwinter, having been stored by people who can do it a lot better than you can do it at home.

The only point of storing apples yourself is if you have a tree or if you can buy them really cheap.

Don't attempt to store McIntoshes. They're no good after October, no matter who stores them.

Yes, i_like_cereal, I meant to say the orange ones.

Thanks for the tips on apple storing, LAZ. I heard a radio interview with an apple grower a while ago in which I heard, if i remember correctly, that what's done to store apples commercially in the winter makes them spoil more rapidly, once taken out of that cold storage, than freshly picked apples. The point was, I guess, that in the off season, don't buy more apples than you plan to use right away. Does that sound right to you?

The nearest farmers' market to me was a big disappointment last week; has that been your recent experience with yours too? Not that I can blame them; when things are out of season, they're out of season. It's my fault for missing the boat earlier this summer.

I noticed last Saturday that the Evanston market had vitually zero green vegetables, which was not the case this time last year, or two weeks ago. I was wondering whether the rains wiped the crops out the week before and if that's it for this year.

Returning to this thread in 2009, I'm beginning to think about stocking up a bit earlier than in previous years. Yesterday I shucked, blanched, and froze 18 ears of sweet corn for the coming winter.

Sweet corn ears are 8/$1(very good quality, based on post-shuck appearance and fresh taste-testing) at Garden Fresh Market this week, and 10/$1 at Lewis Market in Waukegan.

Also washed, sliced, blanched and froze a bunch of celery I have no immediate need for.

On the lookout for other freezables (tomatoes, peppers, basil, asparagus, peaches, berries) before the farmers markets turn into slim pickings next month.

Both of my grandmothers had (well-stocked) root cellars, so I can relate to your yearning, Katie.

I bought 10 pounds of tart cherries, frozen, from my favorite fruit farmer at the Skokie market this summer, and used part of them for jam (I missed the fresh ones). I'm looking forward to a galette and who knows what else this winter.

I don't have a freezer at the moment (except the one with the fridge), so I'm not planning much freezing. I made dill pickles a couple of times in the past, but with the kids off to college, we won't eat that many pickles.

I'd like to try freezing celery, to avoid the spoilage that always occurs because I can't use it fast enough. Do I need to blanch, or can I just chop and freeze? What would be the benefits either way (other than laziness which leads me to want to avoid blanching)?

My parents lived in Europe for several years in the 80s and sometimes ate in a dining hall at a small conference center -- which I mention because they preserved apples and I recall being served an apple (not a golden delicious, but yellow) that was wrinkled on the outside, and perfectly crisp and tasty on the inside. I would not deliberately do this to an apple.

I've made cherry, blueberry and apricot jams to date, and hope to make plum jam before the season is over, and that will have to satisfy my instincts for preservation for the most part.

I've been canning tomatoes like mad: half-pints of puree and pints of sauce: I tried a marinara with sausage meat, but we decided that the sausage loses texture in processing, so now it's just a simple basil-tomato sauce. There's a stand at the Evanston Farmer's market that sells very good field tomatoes in bulk, I got 25 lbs last week for $20, I'll be going back again today and that should finish the 9 pints I have left to do. 4 of the 5 pints of raspberries we picked at rasbry's farm were immediately run through a sieve and the resultant puree poured into ice-cube trays and frozen. I'll make seedless jam at some point - or maybe ice cream. I've got a few cubes of black raspberry left from the farmer's market this spring. We did do other jams early in the season, so we're pretty well stocked up for that.

The new pressure-canner is also enabling me to branch out a bit: I bought a few pints of those little carnival bell peppers, roasted and canned them in 4oz jars (took me a bit of searching to find the processing time - it's the same for 1/2 pint and pint as well.)

At this point, my goal is to fill all the jars I have and resist buying more jars. I'm finding the latter difficult to do.

I'm returning to this thread to post about freezing, though there are surely other threads on the topic. I've made peace with Sweet Baboo's love of pork chops, and decided that if I'm going to be making them fairly regularly, they'd better be good and they'd better be easy. Today I made a big batch of the pork chop brine (jimswsides's?) discussed in a recent thread. I put some of the brine, once cooled, in a gallon bag with the two big butterflied pork chops I'm cooking today for Father's Day. I put the rest in three quart containers in the freezer for future use.