So What Am I Up To Today?
It’s only the beginning of May and I am already freezing veggies for the months to come. I couldn’t be more pleased. I am already ahead of where I was last year, and I am literally giddy with vegetable garden excitement!
So today I am freezing kale, nasturtium, yellow squash, and zucchini. It occurred to me that some of you may not know that you can freeze these veggies, so I thought I would write a quick how-to post.
Freezing Zucchini and Yellow Squash
- Wash the squash
- Cut into ¼” slices.
- Lay on a cookie tray in a single layer.
Note: You can blanch it first in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes then stop the cooking by putting into a bath of ice water. Then follow steps 3-
- Place in the freezer until frozen.
- Bag or vacuum seal it and place in the freezer.
- You can also grate the squash so that you can use it later for bread or other baked goods. Just grate the amount that you need for a recipe (saves time later) and bag and freeze it. You really can’t vacuum seal this because it will be too wet.
Kale and Nasturtium
Note: This will work for any greens including collard and Swiss chard.
- Wash the greens.
- Cut out any large stems (I harvested mine when the leaves were still young and tender so I left the stems on).
- Boil a large pot of water.
- Blanch the greens for 2-3 minutes (Collard green will need to go for 3-4 minutes).
- Drain and place in a ice water bath for 2-3 minutes to stop the cooking action.
- Drain again and squeeze out as much of the water out as you can. Lay the greens on paper towel or clean dish clothes. Pat dry. You want as little water as possible to prevent freezer burn and/or in order to vacuum seal it.
- Portion out into freezer bags or vacuum seal and place in freezer.
Note: I saved the drained water and put it back on my plants, just make sure that it is cooled first!
See, easy peasy. Don’t forget to label with the date and what is inside the bag.