Filling the Freezer

In the last week or two, culinary creativity has been taking a back seat to getting the harvest bounty into the freezer (and to a lesser extent the dehydrator). We have frozen and dried 24 quarts of peaches from Clarkdale and 40 pounds of tomatoes--with 20 more in a box on the dining room table, where they are ripening up a little more before processing, probably this weekend. I have frozen quarts of green beans and the first several bell peppers, as well as whole paste tomatoes from the garden. Now the freezer is filling up, and I think from here we need to be more strategic about what else goes in. We are expecting 20 pounds or so of beef later this month, from a share in a cow that we bought last spring, so we had better save room for that. And we definitely need more peppers. A few other odds and ends will find room--a bit more shredded zucchini, a couple bags of kale, some more pesto--but I think we are going to reach capacity. It will be the first time we have done so since acquiring the freezer late last October, too late for many crops we would have wanted. I am very curious to see how the winter goes with our more extensive stocks, and of course I will be posting recipes here based on frozen ingredients as well as updates on what we've run out of and what we can freeze less of next year (if anything!). Please feel free to post comments with your own experiences and tips!