Preservation Lessons Round #1

A friend asked that I share some information about freezing greens and preserving tomatoes. Since we’re still eating from a big pot of vegetable soup and I won’t be cooking for a couple of days, I thought this might be a good time to address some of those questions.

I’ll start with the greens. Some people might still have greens growing undercover in their gardens, depending on the weather in your area. Ours gave up for the winter in December, but during those heady growing days a few months ago there were plenty to freeze. It does make me feel good to pull out my own bag of greens to put into a pot of soup rather than using a box from the store.

Freezing greens is one of the easiest things to do. I’ve done it two ways and both seemed to work.

Method #1

1. Wash and chop greens.
2. Heat olive oil in appropriate-sized pan.
3. Saute until just wilted.
4. Remove from pan and allow to cool.
5. Put greens into labeled freezer bags.

Method #2

1. Wash and chop greens.
2. Heat water to boiling.
3. Blanche greens for two minutes
4. Remove from pan into ice water.
5. When cool, squeeze out excess water.
6. Put greens into labeled freezer bags.

I want to emphasize, chop the greens. There were a couple of times when I lazily skipped that step. When I pulled them out of the freezer to use, I didn’t realize until they were unthawed that they still needed to be chopped. It’s much easier to do that when they’re fresh. And when do you ever cook with greens that haven’t been chopped?!

Visit your local orchard!

One of my biggest challenges in trying to eat primarily local food is locating fruit. Some fruits do grow here in Kentucky; we have plenty of raspberries right here on our property. I also love pears, apples, peaches, blueberries, strawberries and some fruits, like kiwi, oranges and bananas, that I certainly won’t find locally grown.

When a fruit is in season, I enjoy it to the fullest. Fall, of course, is apple season. So yesterday we drove to Boyd’s Orchard in Versailles and bought nearly 30 pounds of apples. Why so many? Because we love apple pie. When the apples are local and freshly picked, it’s the ideal time to make apple pie filling and freeze it. That turns apple pie baking into a welcome, aromatic activity on even the dreariest of winter days.

My friend Joni gave me this recipe several years ago. The most time consuming part of it, as I was reminded yesterday, is peeling and slicing the apples. However, it’s worth the effort and if you have the right crust to go with it, your pie will get a top rating.

Freezer Apple Pie Filling
6 pounds apples
1 ½ cups to 2 cups sugar
¼ cup flour
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
Rinse apples.
Peel and slice into a big pot with lemon juice.
Stir in other ingredients. Let stand 30 minutes until juicy.
Cook over medium heat until it thickens.
Cool 1 – 2 hours. Put 6 cups in each container (freezer bags work well) for one pie.