That's right folks, Freezer Friday is back! I've been on hiatus from this discipline the last couple months as I've been working on using up the stockpiled meals and produce that is in the freezer. I've done pretty well. Now, the garden is producing and summer menus are right around the corner!First up - we have our first harvest of the season from our garden: Rhubarb. You have to understand that HandyMan is the pie baker in the family and the rhubarb plant has kind of become his baby in the garden. So, he started harvesting last night and we have two vacuumed packs (my new baby in the kitchen!) of measured out rhubarb waiting for pie.
Additionally, in order to prepare the freezer for the harvest to come and get ready for spring grilling, I am joining up with the Freezer Cooking Day going on this weekend over at MoneySavingMom.com. I have plans to bulk buy and marinade meat for the grill, make hamburger patties and do some baking with some of the zucchini, squash and carrots that are still hanging out in the freezer.We're still 6-8 weeks out from our summer crops so we don't need to use up everything in the freezer, but weeding it out will definitely be beneficial.
I just found one of my rhubarb plants going to harvest, so I am going to have to harvest and freeze it, since we are still a couple of weeks away from strawberries.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes on your freezer cooking.
I need to put our surplus in the freezer as well in preperation for jam and pies. I was curious to know how you prep and how much you bag at a time. Is it 2 cups or 4 cups?
ReplyDeleteHi Teresa - my husband handles the freezing of the rhubarb and I instructed him to check the recipe that he uses for pies (yeah - he makes pies too :-) ) for the measurement and freeze in that quantity. In this case it is 3 cups. Best bet is to check your recipe and freeze in that quantity and label it for that use.
ReplyDeleteWe cut the rhubarb, cleaned it and chopped it as he would for pie, bagged it up and threw it in the freezer. I think "technically" you're probably supposed to blanch them or something, but we never have and haven't had any problems.
You've helped me remember to get out and get some of my rhubarb in the freezer, too. But first I've got to make the BIg Crumb Rhubarb coffee cake from Smitten Kitchen- I've been dreaming about it since last spring. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking to the Tuesday Garden Party!