Food In My Freezer
We bought this tiny little sweet basil plant this spring for a few dollars. It has doubled and even tripled in size, and we’ve picked so many leaves off of it. It is delicious in pesto sauce, marinara and spaghetti sauce, soups, or other Italian dishes.
It also freezes very well, so I picked some and froze several bags.
And it just keeps reproducing! I just found this delicious pesto recipe on Julia’s blog, which would also be great for preserving basil. I’d like to try it soon.
I also have quite a bit of chicken stock in the freezer. It will be great to have on hand for cold and flu season.
And we also bought 1/4 of a grass-fed cow from a local farmer and friend.
I really love to can things, but our central air conditioner is broken (struck by lightning last week), and it would make our kitchen too hot. I was hoping to be able to can some tomatoes, as my parents have a lot of them right now, but without air conditioning I don’t think it would be bearable. It’s almost 100 degrees in my kitchen right now (seriously). I can see now why some older farmhouses had a “summer kitchen,” which would keep the main part of the house from getting so hot.
So, that’s a little bit of food preservation over the last few weeks. So much more to do!
Thanks for visiting, Coley!
From what I've read, basil is one of the best herbs for freezing. It's so easy, too!
No idea you could freeze basil. Genius!
Coley @
http://www.whatyoumakeit-coley.blogspot.com
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for suggesting the camp stove. We don't have one, but if we ever get one it would be fun to do some outside canning!
I just use regular quart-size Mason jars for freezing broth. I've found lots of them at garage sales, but you can also get them at Walmart and even the grocery store, usually. The plastic lids I get from Walmart or order from Amazon. You can also use plastic freezer containers, but I usually use glass. If you look for jars, the wide-mouth jars are recommended over the regular (narrow) mouth jars, as they aren't as likely to break in the freezer. Also, be sure to leave enough head space at the top. As the liquid expands in the freezer, it can cause the glass to shatter if there isn't enough room for expansion.
Hope that's helpful!
I was also going to suggest a camp stove for canning, my girldfriend used on this past weekend and she thought it worked out well. Question, where do you get your containers for freezing your chicken broth, are they glass or plasic? Enjoy your blog!
Sarah, how sweet you are!
I enjoyed this post, Joy! You are an inspiration. 🙂
I dice tomatoes and freeze them in bags (2 cups each). I also make all of our tomato sauce that I use for pizza sauce or cooking and freeze it in old freezer containers 2 or 4cups each. I also do applesauce, pearsauce, pearjelly, pearbutter, strawberry jam, sliced zuch (zuch parm instead of chicken), along with shredded veggies that I can add to winter dishes like chilli or meatloaf to increase veggie content. I need to try canning, but have found that you can do a lot with just a freezer.
Hi Kim~
Thanks for all the freezing ideas! I did freeze strawberry jam, strawberry puree, and whole strawberries this spring. I've also frozen grated zucchini before. But freezing diced tomatoes is something I had never thought of. Thanks again for all the ideas! 🙂