Saving for winter by freezing today

A lot of our time here at Hidden Villa is dedicated to food, one can infer this simply by reading these blog posts.  We spend our time talking theory, everything from organics to nutrition, and sometimes it can get out there with wild sodas bubbling in the corner and meat-slab looking kombucha mothers drying in the courtyard. But things aren’t always up in the ether. What it comes down to is that we love food. Real food. (Guest post by Liz, our Public Programs Intern)

However, I’ve been hearing cautionary old wives’ tales of the long winter months with no fresh produce. While this gave me visions of the onslaught of scurvy and waif little interns, I had a feeling it was being exaggerated. But before the “lean months” set it we still have some time left to supplement the winter crops. Real volition for eating locally and staying healthy (not just subsisting on bread and cheese as I tend to do) takes more work than heading to the common grocery store. As one of the agriculture interns told us last night that they were putting the crops “to bed” soon, everyone let out of few panicked gasps. But fear not! Us interns are ahead of the game.

This year we are determined to be the group of interns who actually keep the winter greenhouse producing food. The onslaught of weeds that we first met upon entering the greenhouse is no more. Now arugula, turnips, radishes, chard, carrots, beets, and other winter delights are all popping their heads up. But before the production fields hit the hay for the winter there is still plenty left to glean. This brings me to my long-awaited point: Food preservation!

While we interns have all spent many hours drying, pickling, canning, and fermenting we often forget a pretty simple way to preserve food: freezing. I feel that freezing is a neglected way to preserve food. There is some undertone that real homesteading means work and labor and long-term preparation. Of course stuffing plastic freezer bags is not as bucolic or romantic as putting up mason jars filled with autumn-colored heirloom tomatoes. But you know what? It takes a heck of a lot less time and sweat. And if the zombie apocalypse does happen and we have no electricity then yes, the food will spoil. But if your goal here is to not die from scurvy and still maintain those strict food ethics (dammit, I will eat locally in February) then freezing may be the way to go. Plus I guarantee that you will finish off your frozen tomatoes before next summer making the point of long-term preservation inconsequential.

My mother gave up on canning a long time ago. But this doesn’t mean the garden was dead once winter hit. There were still some posthumous goodies in the freezer. It’s true; Frozen Vegetables doesn’t have to be a dirty word. In fact you retain a lot more nutrients by freezing foods than by canning them. Another intern and I just recently took on a project of freezing the last of the ears of corn from the farm. We shucked, removed kernels, blanched them, and sent them to the chest freezer. The whole process took maybe a little over an hour and we probably saved three to five pounds of corn. So don’t be intimidated by the homesteading Martha Stewarts out there. You can help your family enjoy the hard work from your garden or a farm all winter long with a lot less work and time than some other methods.

If you’re looking for ways to preserve the bounty from your summer garden or want to buy things in bulk from the farmers’ market for preservation, then check out the Oregon State Extension Service’s guide to freezing. Their entire website also has a lot of great resources from gardening to composting to chickens. So good luck and enjoy!

Liz is the Public Programs intern, and comes to California from her home state of Oregon.  While most interns move in with boxes of books and sacks of bedding, Liz also arrived with jars of pickles.