Frugal Food Security - Freezing Fruit

You don't have to wait until summer to put food away for another day. Berries can be frozen whole. To remove field heat from my berries I put my haul straight into the freezer. An hour later I sort the stems and such and put in plastic, very easy with no waste. Bananas can be frozen without plastic. They last 4 months and are indispensable in cakes and smoothies. The best way to preserve ginger is to freeze it whole. I just grate frozen ginger into my recipes and but the remainder back in the freezer.

Frugal Food Security - Freezing Vegetables

Melodie makes a good point about freezing not being the most dependable way to secure food, especially if your power availability might come into question. Freezing is the easiest way to preserve food.

When we were first starting out we could only afford used freezers. We lost 3 freezers full of food in 5 years. Old freezers use way to much electricity to be viable for any length of time. A full freezer, even if it is just bread, will same energy. Save energy by keeping your freezer cool, it is ok outside. Our new freezer is larger and uses less than a quarter the electricity the old ones used. Old freezers are good for storing feed to keep the mice out. We turned ours into a smoker, but that is a story for another day.

Old school had you blanch vegetables in boiling water before freezing them but this denigrates the nutrition. As long as you cut them into small pieces, to be added to recipes on demand, the texture and flavor is excellent. See how I cut the parsley into bits with scissors?

Frugal Food Security - Freezing Food

If you power source is secure, freezing is the best way to preserve food. Cut vegetables into small pieces. Press into a freezer bag removing all the air. "Freezer" bags are thicker than "storage" bags. If you don't use a freezer bag, the dry cold will dehydrate your food in a way to make it unpalateable.

This is tomato sauce, lay it flat so it takes up less room.

This is beans cut into single recipe portions, for soups etc.
Ziplock freezer bags are expensive, and twist tie bags aren't easy to get airtight. For the optimum protection, with the least amount of waste and expense I have found this inexpensive vacuum sealer.

Freezing Peaches

John, I think peaches are best canned - tender, sweet, succulent and convenient on a cold day.

But I freeze mine. Canning heats the house in the season I want it cool, lids must be bought new and stored jars must be rounded up and sterilized, too much sugar is added and the fruit is cooked too long. But mostly I don't want to stand for hours processing them. I freeze most everything.

Preserving Food

Drying is an easy way to preserve food. It can be done any time of year. Herbs can be dried in a box or a paper bag, when the stem snaps when broken they are dry enough to store in a glass container. Fruit should be cut into bit sized pieces and dried at 175 degrees, for a day, until there is no moisture left in them and stored in plastic containers. Even when I think they are dry enough, I open the bag for a few minutes everyday for a week to make sure no mold starts.