Gratituesday: A Funky Fresh Freezer Full
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I know the Funky Fresh Kitchen series has only just begun, but I sure do hope that you’re having as much fun as I am having!!! You all make this blogging thing a blast – I hope you know that. :)
This week for Gratituesday I wanted to share some of the fresh kitchen produce that we’ve been enjoying and working to preserve. Fall is always such a busy time, but the work is so rewarding as the wholesome food keeps filling our pantry and freezers.
We bought 12 dozen ears of organic corn at the farmer’s market and worked together to make a sticky, corn mess all over the kitchen – and also to put it up for winter. ;)
We ended up with about 30 quarts of sweet corn, maybe not enough for the entire year, but hopefully enough to last us until we can eat fresh corn next summer!
I ordered a big box of blueberries from Azure Standard (since blueberries don’t really grow well here in Nebraska). We ate as many fresh berries as we could, but then needed to freeze the rest for smoothies.
Why is it that looking at all these bags of good produce makes me so happy?!
Our green beans have been growing well, but have not produced enough for us to put up a year’s worth. Last week a friend of ours called and begged us to please come pick her green bean garden because she had quite enough. The six of us spent about an hour and a half one morning and well, judge for yourself. Do you think we got enough?
We snapped and blanched and snapped and blanched and now we have gallons of wonderful beans in our freezer!!! (Did I mention that we snapped and blanched? I truly was seeing green beans in my sleep for a few nights in a row.)
As I am every year, I am so thankful that God has provide wonderful, healthy food for our family. I’m thankful for my big freezers and that we are healthy enough to work together to get all of these foods preserved.
I’d love to hear what fresh foods have been in your kitchen as we head into fall. Have you been preserving? Have you visited your farmer’s market? (Leave a comment on this Funky Fresh Kitchen post for another chance to win one of 5 $10 gift certificates from our shop.)
What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here.
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First time gardener here. We put away shallots, bell peppers, banana peppers, squash, and green beans. Our tomatoes didn’t produce very well. In the garden we have MORE squash coming. Plus we are growing butternut squash and butter beans for the baby’s first foods. :) We’re planning to do broccoli and fall tomatoes and more bell peppers next.
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Nothing from our garden this year, but I’m particularly excited about the organic pluots we just got from our co-op.
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We’ve been eating the bulk of what comes from our garden and not been purchasing veg’s. We have managed to put up peppers and a little zucchini. We’ve been blessed to be given some onions and pears (pearsauce-athon tomorrow). I’ve made one batch of spaghetti sauce and hope for more to come.
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We’ve gotten lots of blueberries from the farmers market. Most we’ve eaten fresh but a few quarts have made it to the freezer! We’ve been eating lots of raspberries from our garden. Can’t wait for apples to be ready and we’ll can enough applesauce for the year!
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My 3 yr old daughter just saw your picture of corn and said “that’s our corn, momma.”
We were given the best gift this summer… 549 ears of corn…. it was overwhelming, but we shucked, washed and put up all but 2 dozen! We ended up with about 65 qts. I bagged the corn in 3 cup bags, so we have 80+ meals worth!!
We’ve put up the beans our garden grew, but it wasn’t such a great year… hopefully the fall garden beans will produce abundantly.
Now we are getting saucy around here… apples and tomatoes… put up with HH recipes! I’m hoping to get 52 Qts of applesauce and 26 qts of Apple Butter, we started earlier this year to try to get all the good we can!
So glad I found you Laura!
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We have a large garden and bought half a share at our local CSA. We haven’t had to buy vegetables all summer. We have also been able to freeze a lot but I know it won’t last us all year so I would really like to do more. My goal is put up enough to last all winter. Last year I think we ran out in early February.
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I’m sure that by now you have tossed your corn cobs, but did you know that you can make corn cob jelly? Waste not, want not! I love recipes that you can use EVERYthing to make something! We made some this year and it is very good. It tastes like a honey/light apple flavor. We have been canning and freezing around here like crazy…busy busy busy!
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We got tons of squash from our garden all at once. I had the kids help me cut it up and I blanched it and put 22 quarts in the freezer. This will make great squash casserole this winter.
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One of my goals – to start preserving! Thanks for the encouragement!
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I just finished freezing all the corn from our garden. I didn’t count ears, but I picked 4 5-gal buckets. I’ve been canning green beans, making cold crock pickles, freezing extra melon for smoothies, drying peppers, freezing green chiles and okra, EATING watermelon :)
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My garden was not great this year (my second year of gardening). I’ve not gotten much produce yet, but I did just get my Azure order, which contained organic cornmeal, pinto beans, & oats, along with some other items. They should last me till next summer!
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I just started freezing fresh corn and fruit and we have noticed a distinct difference in the flavor!
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Oh boy! Freezer has 7 gallons of green beans, and more need to be picked tomorrow. We are eating corn, but I don’t think I have enough to freeze this year. Froze 6 lbs of strawberries that we picked ourselves, have 12 qts of cherries, and next coming is tomatoes!
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wow, you’ve been busy! I’d love to grow some (or a lot) of food for my family, but right now we are renting and don’t have the space. Till then, I enjoy learning how other do it! :)
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We’re thankful for a garden that, while small this year, has produced several zucchini, cucumbers, enough beans for a couple meals…and tomatoes and watermelons are on the way!!!
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In July we went to a local blueberry farm and I froze two gallon size bags of berries. Two weekends ago, we went to our local farmer’s market and got a box of corn and I was able to get seven bags full for the freezer. We also bought a box of tonatoes which I turned into juice, sauce, and diced tomaotoes. I also ended up with a second degree burn as a result of the tomato sauce. Ouch! We are going apple picking this weekend!
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Tomatoes! The kids are getting tired of not being able to use the counter any more because I have tomatoes taking up most of one and the crockpots to make sauce on another.
Apple picking will come soon enough and then it will be a challenge to make more mini apple pies so that I can get some to freeze.
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Apples, found a really good deal on em, been using them in all kinds of recipes. Our favorites have been fritters and pie.
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We haven’t been able to harvest quite as much from our garden this summer, but what we can-we can! I just love filling up jar after jar this time of year! :-)
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I’ve been doing a lot of canning recently, and I’m glad for it, because we would’ve lost a lot of frozen stuff during our days without power thanks to Hurricane Irene!!
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I just wanted to share with you how much we love our Excalibur too! I use the slicing blade on the cuisinart and just slice apples whole without taking out the seeds..when they are dry they fall right out! It just seems to make it even faster to get them dried. We also make up a LOT of apple pies and freeze them whole. I make them in a pie pan that is non-stick, bake them and cool, then slide them right out into a ziploc bag, we can get 20 pies done a day and if we work diligently have pie all winter long…made with coconut oil, butter fresh ground whole wheat for our crusts, lots of fresh apples, freshly ground spices! and fresh grated ginger! plus some lovely vanilla! Oh yummy! I guess I am ready for fall after all :)
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I have done tomatoes – I just make sauce as that is what’s easiest & quickest with 4 kids underfoot. I also made tomatillo salsa, cucumber /pickle relish, and more pickles than we will eat.
More tomatoes & tomatillos & peppers are coming on too!
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we are planting our first AZ garden this fall. I can’t wait!
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looks like tasty corn.
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I’ve done over 20 quarts of tomatoes so far, and still have more coming. I’ve found the fastest way to put them up, is in freezer bags. I cut out the part where the stem was, quarter them if they’re big, or just cut them in half, and plop them in the ziploc bag. (No, I don’t take the skins off.) Throw them in the freezer and when I make my chili or spaghetti sauce, I cook them all day long with spices…turns out delicious!If the skins are bothering me, I give them a quick whirl in the food processor. E-A-S-Y!
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Just did more peaches and tomatoes tonight!
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Besides all the baking I’ve been doing with your awesome recipes (freezing half of what I make), we’ve also been putting up peaches, corn, green beans, applesauce, and spaghetti sauce. Have run out of freezer space, so hoping to get creative with shelf-stable storage. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know I’m preparing wholesome foods for my family for the winter months!
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we just moved to oregon and have a FABULOUS produce stand across the street. since we’re in the land of berries (score!), our freezer is full of blueberries and blackberries….literally, full. i also was inspired a few weeks ago and canned some (a lot) of tomato sauce and peaches. i wouldn’t have done it without your step by step tutorial!
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What a blessing to have so much produce from friends! The cheapest I have found organic sweet corn around here is$0.99 an ear..not ver economical! Such a relief to get all that in the freezer, I bet!
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Starting with baby steps here…got some fresh peaches and strawberries in the freezer for winter smoothies. Planning to stock up on produce at the farmers market to freeze too! :)
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We got peaches and raspberries put up this year in the freezer. I also did a boatload of lactofermented pickles from my mother in law’s prolific cucumber garden!
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Found cantaloupe for $.55 a piece! Putting a bunch in the freezer…cantaloupe smoothies anyone?
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I get together with a friend to put up food for the freezer and pantry. This year I canned 9 pints of tomato sauce by myself. Then my friend and I went to a wholesale produce auction and bought and canned 10 quarts of whole tomatoes each. We also froze 8 lbs. of green beans, 3 lbs. of green peppers, 1 lb. of red and purple peppers, 6 bags of grated zucchini and 6 lbs. of chopped onions each. We had fun and put away good, healthy food for our families. And yes, it made me smile! :o)
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Not as much as I’d like… We just moved and I’m SO not used to my new freezer. It’s tiny and hard to organize. :( I keep debating buying a deep freeze, but I’d need to figure out where to put it. Better do it soon if I’m going to…
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Summer Squash thanks to our very generous neighbor!!
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Our garden was wonderful to us this year. Yeah
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We already froze about 30 bags of blueberries and have canned way too many tomato products (salsa, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice) and still have more tomatoes in our garden. Oy!
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We froze and made jam out of strawberries that we picked in the spring (about 90 lbs), but the rest of garden has suffered miserably through this drought and water rationing…I think I’ve gotten a 1/4 of a quart bag of green beans…hoping the fall crop pulls through…
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I love my two freezers! I have one for meat and one for produce! This weekend I worked on freezing applesauce and tomato soup! Next year I am tackling canning in order to make room for more frozen fruit!
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We have been using our yummy veggies to freeze some watermelon salsa and regular salsa as well as pizza sauce in ice cube trays for easy defrost and enjoyment come winter! We also have lots of gallon bags of blueberries for smoothies this fall and winter!
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Love the fresh veggies of summertime
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I would love to do that. Need to get better at gardening!!
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I love having fresh fruit and veggies to put up! We have done green beans and corn for several years. We did the green beans the same way you did, by blanching them first, but I’m really not sure why we do that. Do you know? I feel kinda dumb saying this, because there’s probably a very sensible reason, but I don’t understand why you can’t just wash it and freeze it. Ya know? :-)
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Laura Reply:
September 12th, 2011 at 6:54 am
Blanching them stops the aging process, so they don’t get tough, then cooling them right away after blanching stops the cooking process. Does that make any sense?? :)
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I really know very little about preserving, but trying to teach two little boys (and learn for myself) how to be hard workers, I’m thinking this would be a great thing to add to the list.
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We have some funky Cheroke tomatoes that grow in sort of a rainbow color.
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I’m canning tomatoes for the first time this year. Yum!
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I’ve frozen fruits and veggies for several years, but this year I finally got a pressure canner. I have already canned Italian green beans, peaches, potatoes, peach butter, bread-n-butter pickles, applesauce and stewed tomatoes. Plus, I’ve frozen more green beans, corn, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and peaches. We have some great farmer’s markets and produce stands near us and we have been blessed with the money to get what we have so far. Hoping to still put up dill pickles, carrots, lots more tomatoes and apples.
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Okay! I canned my tomatoes (using Laura’s tomato sauce recipe) my FIRST time canning EVER! Then I got 5 dozen ears of corn at the farmers market and froze them. THEN I did the same with beans. I feel sooooa accomplished.
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