Stocking our freezer for winter

One of the biggest priorities I have when planning out what I grow each season is what I need to restock in my freezer. We use frozen vegetables year-round which helps us to enjoy our bounty 12 months out of the year.

We have 2 deep freezers. One we use primarily for our fruit and vegetables and the other is where we store pretty much everything else, including bulk pork that we get from local farmers.

We do a big freezer clean out every February to sort everything out. We will compost anything that is freezer burnt but we will also figure out what we need more of from the next growing season.

You can freeze pretty much anything, but we have our staples that always go in our freezer each summer:

Green Beans

We eat these all the time as a quick and easy side for our winter meals. We blanch and freeze, making it very easy to reheat and eat as needed.

Broccoli

I could eat broccoli every day and never get sick of it. We always grow dozens of broccoli plants to help keep our stock replenished. Broccoli can also be blanched and frozen. This past winter we ate all of our broccoli that we had frozen last year so we made it a priority to grow more this season.

Sweet Corn

We freeze sweet corn every summer and the taste does not compare to store bought frozen corn. I love sweet corn and we freeze dozens of bags each season.

Zucchini

Ask Michael about that one season in 2019 when I planted 9 zucchini plants for the 2 of us! We shred and freeze our zucchini, and also cut it into coins to use in stir fries.

Peppers

I chop peppers for freezing but I also will slice them for things like winter fajitas. The texture does change when you freeze them, but I always appreciate having some on hand every month of the year!

Strawberries, Blueberries, and Raspberries

Locally grown fruit is so tasty, and we love freezing the berries we get at Lorence’s Berry Farm and Little Hill Berry Farm, as well as our own raspberries. I’ll toss it into a muffin recipe or other recipe, or we will eat them on top of yogurt and granola, or we eat them plain!

This list certainly isn’t a comprehensive list of everything I freeze, but these are our top priorities when we are growing each season. We will often freeze Swiss chard and tomatoes (especially if we have a large harvest that year and we’re running out of space for jars). This year I may experiment with freezing cabbage too!

When deciding what you want to preserve, whether in the freezer or by canning, consider what it is that you eat a lot of, and what you’ll appreciate having over winter. Consider too your storage space - if you have a deep freezer, is there space for what you want to preserve for the winter months?

I always recommend a thorough freezer clean out at least once each year. This helps to take inventory of what you have on hand, toss what doesn’t look the best anymore, and plan ahead for what you need more of!