Freezing Hot!

Last weekend we visited our very dear friends near Ithaca NY. It was the perfect weekend: sunny but not too hot, and filled with fun and love. Our friends took us city mice to a picking farm, and we went a bit overboard. We ended up with an overabundance of fruits and vegetables! They were all so pretty and so fresh that I couldn't resist picking "just one more."




Well, that "just one more" did not fit in our refrigerator, and I knew we would not eat everything before it started to go, so I decided that what I couldn't carry to work to share would have to be frozen. I did consider drying some of the peaches, but found out that the oven had to be on for 15 hours--no way! It was already about 100 degrees in my kitchen--I didn't need to turn it into an inferno.



I turned to the Internet and found so many helpful sites with instructions on freezing produce, and great recipes as well. One site I turned to was the National Center for Home Food Preservation, "your source for current research-based recommendations for most methods of home food preservation."

So I set to slicing and peeling and blanching and bagging. And for the first time ever I used freezer paper for it's intended purpose*. I now have a freezer filled with yummy eggplant and zucchini. The boiling made it nice and steamy in the kitchen and boy was I beat after all that! I cannot imagine spending days in a hot kitchen boiling down fruits, sterilizing jars, making jams...I certainly will appreciate jams and jellies, and the people who made them, much more now!

*freezer paper can be used between slices of eggplant and other items to make it easier to get them apart once frozen. But I had it in my studio because it is very handy for stencils!