Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) is a really easy way to keep fruits and vegetables in their most natural state but preserved for the winter. The idea (for me) is to have loose veggies that I can use a handful or two for soup, risotto, cassoroles....
Simple ProcessFruit that I have tried with this this method: Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb
1. Wash and dry fruit.
2. Line sheet pan with wax paper or parchment.
3. Trim and slice veggies or fruit.
4. Lay fruit/veggies in a single layer on cookie sheet.
5. Freeze for 2-5 hours (or longer), place frozen veggies in Tupperware or a plastic bag.
Veggies: Green pepper (sliced for fajitas), cauliflower, broccoli, any kind of hot pepper (freeze whole with stems).
Zucchini or carrots— grate with skin on, portion into cups. Lay each haystack of zucchini on a cookie sheet. Then if your recipe calls for 2 cups, then you’ll grab two haystacks out of the freezer bag.
Sliced Carrots— I cut carrots into rounds for soups or stews
Strawberries— I just trim the green stems and freeze whole
Peaches, Pears and Apples— I cut into slices, sprinkle with fruit fresh and freeze.
Peeling Peaches and Tomatoes for canning
1. Score the bottom of the fruit by cutting an x just through the skin.
2. Bring water to a rolling boil
3. Boil peaches for 2 minutes, Tomatoes until the skin starts to peel up
4. Cool on a baking sheet
5. Peel, it’s so easy!
4 comments:
Great post!! Very useful! Thanks for sharing!
I normally can and make jam out of all of my peaches, and occasionally dehydrate them, too. This year, we have so many i'm thinking of freezing them. The pick-you-own website says to add citric acid powder + sugar syrup to keep them from turning brown in the freezer. do you add this mix or just peel, slice and freeze?
Thanks!
ah, yes, i see in re-reading that you use fruit fresh - is that citric acid powder?
do you like them better canned or frozen? frozen seems like much less work, and now that we finally have a chest freezer, i have room for the first time to freeze some.
okay, sorry for rambling. :)plamber
Angela great questions, I like peaches either way, canned or frozen. I like freezing better because, lets be honest, it's hot!
Even though you boil them to peel, it's not hours of boiling water, just about a half hour. Then the rest isn't hot work.
I put them in quart freezer bags, and freeze them stacked flat, that really helps with freezer space!
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