Staying raw with freezing

[kimmm]

Hello out there- I've been raw before, would like to dabble in it again. Planted a big garden here in midwest Illinois and the harvest is ready! Now how can I try and preserve some of my bounty and keep raw? Can I freeze some of the veggies and keep them raw? Any suggestions for the tomatoes, corn, green beans, basil, melons, zucchini, peppers? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you! Kim

[Mamoo]

Wow, to have a big garden would be wonderful. I didn't have any luck this year as nothing seemed to grow. I wound up with 1 tomatoe plant that didn't die, but it has only given me 3 tomatoes that were just a little bigger than a golf ball. That comes to about $25 dollars a tomatoe the way I figure it.

I wondered the same thing if my garden had done well, how to put it up. I think freezing is much better than cooking, but I would probably go with dehydrating as much as I could. Then use the Food Saver to seal it in fruit jars. I don't guess it would last as long that way, but hopefully it would make it through most of the cold weather.

In the meantime, just enjoy the garden, I'm thinking Rawviolies, stuffed zucchini, corn salsas....

[DebB]

Hello out there- I've been raw before, would like to dabble in it again. Planted a big garden here in midwest Illinois and the harvest is ready! Now how can I try and preserve some of my bounty and keep raw? Can I freeze some of the veggies and keep them raw? Any suggestions for the tomatoes, corn, green beans, basil, melons, zucchini, peppers? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you! Kim

Hi Kim ~ I freeze things ALL the time. Just tonight I harvested/cut 2 trays of wheat grass, put the cut grass in a plastic bag and tossed it in the freezer as I don't have time right now to juice it. I've never done it before, so I'll see what I see in a few days...

I'm originally from northern Illinois :)

Allright -- I freeze zucchini for 'garden burgers', so that I process in the food processor with the S blade - put in a ziploc bag and freeze. Then I Food Save all the ziploc bags (that I leave open to vacuum out all the air).

If I were to freeze corn - I would cut it from the cob, flash freeze it and FS (food save) it. I'd flash freeze the beans and then FS them as well.

My basil - I make it all into pesto. I did it last year and plant to do it again this year.

You can search this blog (http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/)as she's got great info there on how to freeze fresh herbs - sorry, but I'm in a hurry to find it myself right now.

If I were to freeze melon - I would probably FP (food process) it into a puree and freeze in individual containers for green smoothies. I freeze a lot of fruit this way just for GS. I bought about 40 mangoes a couple months ago - pureed them all and froze in small containers. Then I popped them out of the containers and FS them...

I've frozen peppers for years, never blanched them or anything. I simply wash them, cut them up however I want to and pop in a bag and freeze.

I hope this helps! I plan on trying to freeze greens this year. If I have to - I'll puree them too for smoothies... *Ü*

[spicyfull]

You can also Dehydrate and most everything will Freeze. You can also Share with your Neighbors and if you really feel the Joy to feed the Hungry.....you can share with a Food Bank or Break out the Canning Jars and Can some Food to Share with Food Banks rather than let it Spoil.

Whenever you Give.........Don't Worry..........It WILL ALWAYS COME BACK TO YOU....MULTIPLIED.

[Aleesha Sattva]

do food banks where you are take fresh food? they don't up here.

you can also juice many things and freeze the juice in mason jars. ;)