Here in Michigan, while we may have harsh winters, we are blessed with amazing summer and fall produce. My family loves to pick produce when it’s fresh and freeze what we don’t eat.
Here are a few tips for picking and freezing fruits and veggies. First, look at your local farms and see where and when you can pick fruit. Here in Michigan, we generally start with asparagus and rhubarb, move on to strawberries, cherries and blueberries. Then peaches, blackberries and raspberries in late summer and apples in the fall. Some fruits have a very short growing season, so it’s good to see what’s available in your state and contact local pick-your-own farms to see if they have a good projection of their picking season.
With all the fruit picking we do, I have to say that I’m not a canner. I wish I was! I tried it once and I just didn’t feel like it was worth the mess or the time. So, what we don’t eat, we freeze! Generally I use the frozen fruit in smoothies, freezer jams or desserts throughout the year. I cook the veggies for dinner or puree to use in muffins or smoothies. I love being able to pull out flavorful local produce in the middle of winter!
Every fruit seems to have a trick or two to freeze well. Here are a few of the tips I use. Strawberries–I wash and hull, place in a single layer on several cookie sheets and place in the deep freezer until frozen. Then I pull them off the cookie sheets and keep them in freezer bags. They stay separate in the bags and are already washed and ready to use. For peaches, I wash and slice them, then place the slices on a cookie sheet and treat them just as I would strawberries. For blueberries, I freeze them unwashed and just pull out what I need and wash them later. Poke around online and you can learn to freeze just about anything! I also love to make smoothies and freeze them into popsicles. It seems like a dessert but it’s really just fruits and veggies!
Do you take advantage of your local produce? Feel free to share any of your favorite tips or recipes!