Preserving the Harvest (Part 1)

One of the things I love about eating locally grown, organic food is that you are always eating the best of the best. When you eat a peach, in season, fresh off the tree, you are experiencing what a peach should really be. Eating one out of a Del Monte can, or one that has been in cold storage for who-knows-how-long just isn’t the same.

The only problem? When they’re gone, they’re gone.

Unless…

You learn to preserve the harvest. 🙂

This time of year, I spend a good amount of time “putting up food”.  I order extra tomatoes in my CSA box. I purchase more bell peppers than I normally would at the farmers market. I order bulk quantities of certain items so that I can can, freeze, or pickle the things I use most throughout the year. This usually means jalapenos, tomatoes, peaches and some herbs are making their way to my kitchen in large amounts.

By investing a little extra time and effort, I am able to make sure that I have fresh, locally grown, organic food at my fingertips year ’round.

Today, it’s bell peppers. They are super easy to preserve and super delicious.

I have been ordering a few extra bell peppers in my boxes lately.  I have quite a stash saved up, and today, they go to the freezer. Here are just a few.

Its a simple process:

Core the bell peppers, removing the seeds.

Decide if you want slices, strips, or diced peppers, and cut accordingly.

Layer the peppers on a cookie sheet and pop into the freezer until the pieces are coated in ice (maybe 3-4 hours?)

Package into freezer bags.

Pre-freezing (or flash freezing as its called) will keep the peppers from sticking to each other in the bag. 🙂

Use later for egg scrambles & omelettes, chili, pizza, fajitas…the options are endless. 🙂

Their health benefits are amazing too. (Ignore the fact that those aren’t bell peppers in the picture, LOL!)