You know you've got it bad when you choose to come home from the beach a day early because you're worried about the garden. Isn't that the way it seems to go? After the planning, the planting, the tilling, the toiling, the watering - the waiting, for goodness sake - the fruits of my labor mature and are ready to pick while I'm on vacation!
The broccoli absolutely had to be cut when we arrived home yesterday evening. Of course there was way more than we could eat this week. Plus, we had already eaten supper on the way home from the beach and had plans for Sunday dinner at Rouse's parents' house tonight. All that broccoli and no plan to cook in the immediate future ... I decided to capture all that fresh goodness and store it in the freezer for another day. As often happens, one great idea lead to another, and before long, we were on our way to Wal-Mart to purchase a vacuum packaging system. Rouse the Spouse was sweet to accompany me on this late night errand!
A vacuum sealing system is something I've been thinking about getting for awhile, especially for freezing my fresh garden produce. Exposure to air causes food to lose nutritional value and flavor, not to mention an increased chance of freezer burn. I've always used heavy-duty freezer bags, squeezing out as much air as possible. A vacuum packaging system, though, removes most of the air from the package reducing oxidation, sealing in flavor and quality, and extending the storage life of the food.
At 10:00pm we arrived home with the new toy. At this point, Rouse excused himself for bed, but of course I had to try it out immediately. I had frozen some local strawberries and packed them loosely into a big gallon-sized freezer bag. I re-packed those berries into two "FoodSaver" quart bags and sealed away. The packages look downright professional!
It was time to get that broccoli into the freezer. I had already soaked the broccoli heads in salt water for 30 minutes to remove any hidden insects or cabbageworms (a few did float out). I rinsed and drained the broccoli heads, then cut them into medium-sized sections. I blanched them for 3 minutes, cooled them in ice water, drained them, then laid them out on a tray and put them into the freezer while I cleaned up the kitchen. Once they were mostly frozen, the broccoli was easy to pack into three quart-sized "FoodSaver" bags. I let the machine do its thing, sucking the air out of the bag and sealing it up. Now they're stored in the basement freezer. Very satisfying. Here's to no power outages this year!
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