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Florida Gardening

question about freezing produce

writersblock (9b/10a)

11 years ago

One reason I've never grown more vegetables than I do is that everything always seems to ripen at the same time, no matter how much I try to stagger plantings, and I have an ancient fridge with a lousy freezer that won't keep anything for very long. Well, it's finally on the way out (yay!), and I have a question for all you super-productive gardeners: How important is a quick freeze feature for fresh produce?

I imagine that the faster you can freeze, the better, but I don't know how well this feature works on average home fridges. Is it worth limiting my search to a model that has this?

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Comments (8)

tinael01
11 years ago
I don't have that feature and my produce freezes okay and if I was looking for a freezer I would probably not pay for that feature - but then I'm cheap lol. The extension service has a document on freezing food.

Here is a link that might be useful: freezing vegetables
whgille
11 years ago
Writersblock - The only thing that I would recommend is the self cleaning freezer. Currently I have 2 refrigerators with freezer that are self cleaning and 1 freezer that is not, so I have to do more work cleaning it. I had a commercial freezer from an ice cream store that I had but it was really big and noisy so I got rid of it.
Freezing vegetables and fruits are the easiest thing to do, follow by drying them in the dehydrator and after that canning that is more elaborate.
Certain fruits and vegetables are better for freezing than others...
Good luck with your new buy!

Silvia
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imagardener2
11 years ago
I don't have a quick freeze on our freezer which is part of the fridge, not a separate freezer (which we have but don't use).

I pulled the last of my collards 2 weeks ago, removed the stems, cut the leaves up, blanched them and then put them on cookie sheets in the freezer. The next day I put the frozen collards in plastic freezer baggies. I've been using them a little at a time, in stews, stir fry, etc. You can do this with any green such as spinach or kale.

If I grew a lot of veggies maybe I'd plug in the stand alone freezer.

Denise
writersblock (9b/10a)
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the replies, everyone. Tinae, it's not necessarily more expensive to get the fast freeze button these days, but if it's not important I'd rather get something that's a real power miser like the Maytag ecoconserve. Good to know it's not a major plus to have it.
User
11 years ago
The culprit if you freeze slow is the ice crystals will grow and pierce the cell walls which have a negative effect on texture. Here is one trick for tomatoes....dehydrate them.not to the point they are hard but just until they are reduced in size by say 1/2 to 3/4 then freeze them. Because you have removed so much water they freeze like a dream with almost no loss of quality.
Truscifi
11 years ago
I agree with the others, you don't need the fast freeze for most things. I do recommend freezing everything flat on a cookie sheet first, then bagging it once it is frozen. That way it doesn't all clump together and is much easier to get out of the bag when you are ready to use it. It also seems to cut down on extra moisture which causes some of those pesky ice crystals, though I'm not sure why. Maybe it freezes faster laid out in a single layer than bagged?
L_in_FL
11 years ago
Food does freeze a lot faster laid out in a single layer. If you freeze things packed in a bag or container, the food in the center is insulated by the food around it. Depending on how dense the food is and how large the container is, it can take a long time for the food in the middle of the container to freeze.

You're also right that freezing things in a single layer reduces moisture, because there's air circulation around each piece of food during the freezing process. Any moisture released by the food gets vented out of the freezer. When you freeze in a sealed container or bag, all of the moisture is trapped in the container and ends up as those pesky ice crystals. Of course, if what you're freezing is already liquid (such as tomato sauce) that extra moisture doesn't matter.
writersblock (9b/10a)
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, everyone!

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