Following on from the thread here http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,62952.0.html about pulping and freezing tomatoes, I thought I'd ask what you put in the freezer from the allotment. We've just got a new vertical freezer which already has some peppers, chillis, raspberries and tomato sauce but was wondering what else people regularly freeze.
Cheers!
Masses and masses of free raw blackberries, very good at the moment. French climbing beans (but not the flat ones which seem to go slimy) but prefer to use them fairly quickly as they do deteriorate over several months, in my experience. Purple sprouting broccoli, again not for long. Cooked dishes made with potatoes (shepherd's pie etc) work well. I don't like frozen courgettes or squash.
I don't tend to freeze actual veg and fruit hardy at all..but I do freeze some of the things that I make out of them. If I make soup..I make lot and freeze some of it and once I use it I can add into it what ever is fresh and available, but the base of the soup is already done.. ;) Or I make big pot of 'general' tomato' sauce that I can use various dishes.
At the moment I have few dishes of apple sauce in freezer..it doesn't have any sugar in it so it doesn't store otherwise.
I used to freeze lot..but I find that I can grow enough all year round that I have something fresh to eat..so I just wait what ever is in season and enjoy the variation..all berries and fruit taste even better when you have waited a long winter and spring to get to eat them again ;D
Lots of tom paste, I freeze most of my chilis, cooked down apples, Raspberries, blackberries and Rhubard. Plus I tend to make up big batched of veg soup which end up in the chest freezer..
Im not a fan of frozen beans but still do some anyway!
Chillies, blackberries, runner beans, tomato paste, various soups, Nigel Slater's onion and marsala gravy (I make it in bulk and freeze in portions because we love it so much with bangers and mash), chicken stock and oven chips. Luckily we have three freezers at the moment but I'm still running out of space!
I don't like frozen food so I do not freeze much at all. We have only just got a fridge freezer again after years without.
we have loads of frozen fruit that gets made into smoothies now and again, bags of tomatoes, containers of tomato 'slop' as saddad says, lots of different soups,easy to make a lunch out of, peppers, courgettes, beans and peas,sweetcorn, this year, we have lots of different juices made, elderflower and gooseberry,blackcurrant, apple, pear, etc, don't expect to have to buy fruit juice at all this winter..the only think I freeze made up is cauliflower cheese from excess cauli, romanesco freezes well as it is :)
I don't freeze produce as I like fresh veg, but the old lady gets cheap joints of meat from the 'cheap shelf in the supermarkets, which ain't too bad. But next week when I venture north I expect to freeze my nuts ;)
Not to bad Ace. When I saw your name on this one i dreaded what you might put.
It's not that cold ooop North you know ;)
Ace you'll icicles hanging off your whatsit. :P :P :P
Don't do much frozen veg - although peas do quite well. Most of our stuff is cooked: apple puree, soups, tomato sauce & puree.
Mind you, blackberries & loganberries do well raw.
I freeze loads but at this time of year some produce just does not fit in.
I have pears hanging off their branches and apples too. Not to mention other veg and fruit.
It is a problem.
Sadly neither of us like jam or chutney so a great deal is passed on or composted.
At the moment we've got courgette, carrots, beans, cabbage, blackberries, chopped tomatoes - we had sweetcorn & peas too but they've been eaten. I'm sure there's some stuff I've forgotten...I'd take a look but there's a barrow full of Cara spuds in front of the freezers in the garage and I can't be arsed to move it! We have a tall and short freezer in the garage, plus the fridge freezer in the house, and there isn't much spare space.