Oh my! I can not believe the amount of tomatoes and peppers my garden has put out this year. I have been preserving it all in so many ways and have shared a lot of it with you so far.
Today, I am going to show you how I prepare it all for the freezer.
Cherry Tomatoes
If you have ever planted a cherry tomato you will have experienced an abundance of tomatoes from just one plant. Usually, I am trying to find people that I can share them with, as it is hard to eat so many when they start producing.
This is the first time I have ever cut them in half and put them onto a tray to freeze them. After one day I took them out and vacuumed-sealed them for later use.
Sweet Peppers
I did plant 12 red, orange, and yellow peppers this year. They all did wonderfully, but for some reason, a lot of my orange bells got black spots on them. I will have to research why that may have happened.
After removing the seeds and pith, I slice them into sections and chop them using this little gadget. It takes no time at all to chop a good amount of peppers up. I love using things that make my life a bit easier in the kitchen, don't you?
Once these are all cut up I put them on a tray and flash-freeze them for one day before packaging them up.
Here is a small tray of yellow peppers ready for the freezer. I used a larger blade for these with the gadget. I will use this size of diced pepper for most of the dishes I make for dinner.
The peppers are frozen solid, put into bags, and sealed. Vola, I now have a freezer that is overflowing with peppers, onions, and tomatoes.
I love my FoodSaver machine and use it to preserve all my veggies and meat products. It really does make a difference in keeping the freezer burn to a minimum. I think it helps to keep the food longer in my opinion.
Onions
I do the same process for my white onions as I do for the peppers. Onions freeze nicely for a long time and it makes it so easy to just take some out of the package when needed.
Onion & Pepper Mixture
I am doing small diced for this batch since I will be adding them to egg dishes I will be making for my husband's breakfast. It makes it so easy for me to add them to different dishes without having to chop each thing every time I am cooking.
Jalapeno Peppers
I over-planted a variety of hot peppers this year thinking my son would use a lot of them. That however was not the case. Here I am chopping them with the small dicing blade and then freeze them on the tray for a day before packaging them with the vacuum sealer.
I will use these in many dishes over the winter, but, my favorite is to make Jalapeno Cheddar Bread or biscuits. They are so delicious and a great treat for my family.
I will share a recipe with you for the bread in an upcoming post. I made some last week and oh my, it was so tasty.
Dried Cayenne Peppers
I did put these hot peppers into my dehydrator as I did not need them for anything right away. I have already put up enough hot sauce this season for a small army. I won't have to make any next year, or perhaps, one never knows, right?
Sweet Corn
Lastly, I purchased a dozen sweet corn to put up this year. I do not have room enough in my urban garden to grow it myself. I went to our public farmers market and found my favorite variety, bread & butter corn.
The only step that is different than the onion and peppers is you have to blanch the corn on the cobs for 6-8 minutes. Then cool them down in an ice bath before removing the kernels from the cob.
Well my friends this post has become longer than I thought so I will end it here. I hope you have as wonderful a harvest as I did and are able to preserve it all too.
Until next time, this is Sunscape
Sun. Scape. Ing Your Day
