A new way for me to can - The Freezer

 

The biggest reason I have heard for people to tell me they couldn't do a CSA or farm share program is that they simply can't use all of the produce that we get each week through our farmthisway membership distributions.  That they don't know how to can or don't have the time, or don't want to invest in the supplies.  Here is a secret...I don't have the time to can most of the time either.  But I do have a freezer!  And here is how that helps.

This week we got a whole crate of corn.  We can't eat THAT much corn in one week, especially at the end of the season, when we literally have corn coming out of our ears (pun intended).  But, if I freeze some of that corn, right on the cob, mid winter, a special taste of summer can be ours.  Last week we got a LOT of tomatoes, and this week too.  Last week I didn't have the time to deal with them and make sauce, so I froze them, whole with skins on.  Sometime this fall or winter, I will pull them out, and the skins will come right off when they're defrosted, and I will use them for sauce or soup then. 

But, aside from freezing stuff straight out the freezer and a farmthisway CSA are great for future meal planning.  Today, a rare day where I don't have to be anywhere while the kids are at school, I have my stove and oven working away. Tomato sauce, potato and corn chowder and chili sauce on the stove, and acorn squash roasting in the oven (which will also become soup).  The chowder is for tonight, but the others are for future meals.  The easiest way for me to process them is this....after they are done, I let them cool.  I transfer them to 1 gallon size Ziploc bags, suck the remaining air out with a straw and seal the bags.  then I have flat laying packages of future meals that stack EASILY in my freezer.  It doesn't require a canning pot or lids and jars, just some bags, which are way cheaper and I always have in stock anyhow.  I don't have a chest freezer because my husband isn't a fan, so I have one section of my bottom freezer (similar to the one shown above) that I save just for all of my flattened, frozen meals or meal starters.  On those nights in the fall and winter when we are in need of a quick dinner or need sauce for a pasta meal, I go to the fridge and grab a bag to defrost, and off we go!  

So, if you dread the process of canning, give freezing a try.  It is my new favorite method of preservation!