Bags of Mixed Vegetables, Frozen

One of the staples of my summer food preservation efforts is bags of mixed vegetables. These include whatever is ready in the garden, except for the tomatoes. This week I have zucchini and beans ready. The carrots in the picture on the left are store-bought since our own carrots are very pitiful this year. The broccoli is ready, but I didn't have time to pick it this morning. The beans will be going into their own quart bags tomorrow when I have enough to process.

To prepare the veggies, I use the preparation for freezing guidelines in Rodale's Stocking Up book. If I don't have time to look, I usually steam the vegetables for four minutes, rinse them off with cold water and then dump them into the mixing bowl to cool to a manageable temperature. The medium-sized bowl above had enough vegetables to fill up three quart bags very nicely.

The cost of the vegetables in the bowl above is a bit more than our usual cost since I used store-bought carrots. Typically, my cost is very low since all the vegetables come from the garden and were grown from seed. My biggest cost is the quart freezer bags and we're able to use these for a number of times, even after they have a hole. At that point, I'll use them for cooked chicken and throw them out afterwards.

For more posts in the Carnival of Home Preserving go here.