The ability to freeze food at home and store it in perfect condition for months or even years has made a huge difference to those looking for self sufficiency.
Frozen Home Grown Produce
Preparation and freezing is far quicker than most older methods of preserving the harvest to see us through the ‘hungry gap’ to the next crop’s arrival.
Having said that, there’s more to freezing food than dropping it into the freezer. To successfully store your home grown produce requires a basic knowledge of how freezing works and how to prepare food for the freezer.
Hopefully the articles below will give you that basic knowledge and your frozen food will leave the freezer in perfect condition.
Freezers and Freezing Food
Where to Keep Your Freezer
Freezers simply work by exchanging the heat from out of the interior and delivering it to the outside. So, the hotter it is outside the harder the motor has to work.
The positioning is a major issue. Never put your fridge...
Freezers - Chest or Upright Freezer?
The choice is between a chest freezer, an upright freezer and a combined fridge freezer so we've looked at each in turn.
Do consider power cuts and running costs. Check how long your freezer will maintain temperature without power. We've seen as...
How to Freeze Food - General Information, Blanching etc.
Freezing – General Information
We mainly use our freezers for our own home grown produce. Fresh is best, of course, but the fact is you’ll always have a glut when home growing and it is nice to eat your favourites out of season.
Some thi...
Freezing Vegetables - Preparation & Blanching Times Part 1
Part One - Artichokes to Leeks
For Mushrooms to Turnips see Freezing Vegetables Preparation &; Blanching Times part 2
Globe artichokes
Remove all outer coarse leaves and stalks, and trim tops and stems. Wash well in cold water, add a little...
Freezing Vegetables - Preparation & Blanching Times Part 2
Part Two - Mushrooms to Turnips
For Artichokes to Leeks see Freezing Vegetables Preparation &; Blanching Times part 1
Mushrooms
Choose small button mushrooms and leave whole, wipe clean but don’t peel. Sauté for a minute in butter or oil. Mu...
Freezing Herbs - How to Freeze Herbs
The main and traditional method of storing summer herbs for winter use is drying.With some soft leaved herbs, that are best used fresh, freezing is a way to get that fresh herb flavour into a dish at any time of year.
Pick Your Freezing Herbs at Their...
Freezing Fruit - How to Freeze Fruits
Freezing fruit is possible but once frozen and defrosted, texture is lost. The easiest way to to freeze fruit for things such as making a pie filling is to make the filling or a purée and freeze that.
Freezing Apples
Most apples will store for ...
Freezer Running Costs - How Much do Freezers Cost to Run
Most of us have a freezer but how many of us know about freezer running costs ? Are they high or low - do they vary much between freezers and can we reduce their costs further?
With growing our own food, we need to store it. We enjoy seasonal...
Freezer Running Costs - Test Results How Much our Freezers Cost
In this article I run through the results of our freezer running costs tests on our 3 freezers and fridge-freezer. Annual running costs extrapolated and comparison of running costs with and without a Savaplug fitted.
Tall Old Upright Freezer Running...
Running Costs for Freezers Conclusions
Freezers are a great way to store food. Properly blanched, we have kept vegetables for two years without noticeable deterioration. However, you do need to keep an eye on the running costs. These are our conclusions after testing our own freezers and...
