The Modern Victory Garden

Tonight after work I harvested some broccoli and celery.   The celery was harvested by removing every other plant in an alternating pattern by row, which resulted in a sizeable harvest but also left the remaining plants in the bed with more room to continue growing.   The celery harvest tonight is all going into the freezer for future use, but a large portion of the remaining plants will be used for fresh harvests as needed throughout the summer.   

I gave the remaining celery plants a deep drink of water as the soil was starting to dry out and that is absolutely the last thing you want to have happen with celery.   This is a plant that likes its feet in wet humousy soil.      

None of the items harvested tonight was needed for meal preparation, so it was all destined to go into the freezer for future use.           

I first processed the broccoli.   Here is how I like to do this.   Step one is to rinse the produce thoroughly in preparation for blanching and freezing.    Broccoli is then cut into florets and pieces and placed in a metal mesh colander (or other metal strainer) that can be immersed in boiling water.   

Once the broccoli has been prepped, a large pot of water needs to be set to boil.    In addition, an ice water bath needs to be prepared.   Put a stopper in the sink drain and then fill with ice and water.               

Next I place the metal mesh colander filled with broccoli into the pot of boiling water - immersing it.   I use a large spoon to push the produce down into the boiling water.   This is brought back to a boil and then boiled for approximately 2 minutes until the produce is a bright color.   The idea is not to cook it thoroughly - but just to start the cooking and kill the enzymes that will cause it not to keep well in the freezer.                    

I remove the colander from the boiling water and then immediately immerse it into the waiting ice water bath.   The colander is swished around in the ice water to ensure the middle portion is cooled down.   The important thing is to immediately stop the cooking process.                   

Once cooled, the colander is removed from the ice water and allowed to drain in the sink.   I like to place the broccoli in a flat container and freeze over night until frozen solid.   Once it is frozen, I make sure the pieces are separated and then place them into a gallon zip lock freezer bag before placing it back into the freezer.   By keeping the individual pieces separated, it makes it easy to scoop out what I need for a meal and then reseal the bag up for future use.                            

The celery was easier to freeze because it does not require any blanching.    Onions and peppers similarly do not need to be blanched before they are frozen.    All three of these items (celery, onion, and peppers) make up the Holy Trinity of cooking - used in combination regularly as the foundation of so many recipes.   Having large bags of diced onions, diced peppers, and sliced celery in the freezer is very convenient-  because you can scoop out what you need from each and then reseal the bag.   The frozen items do not require any cutting or prep work, as they are ready to be used immediately.   

The celery was washed, trimmed, and then cut into slices.                  

I like to wash the celery in a sink of water and use the other sink to place the trimmings into.                                

The celery trimmings went into the kitchen compost bucket and was taken out and added to the compost pile once I was done and cleaned up the kitchen.    The broccoli trimmings were given to the chickens as they love broccoli (not so keen on celery though!).       

The slices of celery are then placed into a pan.                      

This pan of celery slices was then placed into the freezer overnight.   Later, the frozen celery slices will be removed, separated, and put into a gallon zip lock freezer bag before being returned to the freezer.   This harvest of celery gives me a good winter supply of frozen sliced celery for cooking.   I still have many celery plants in the garden that I will continue to use for fresh eating in the months to come.                           

Have you started to do any preserving yet from your 2011 garden?           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener