It’s a hot time in the garden right now, but many vegetables, fruits and herbs are ready to harvest. Now is a great time to preserve some of your yield for the winter months ahead. While canning and dehydrating are popular methods of preserving, freezing remains the absolute easiest, fastest, and most beginner-friendly preservation method. It locks in peak-season flavor, vibrant color, and essential nutrients with minimal equipment. Most frozen produce keep well for 8 to 12 months at zero degrees F or colder. Here is a simple, foolproof guide to freezing your Georgia garden harvest. Some of the easiest vegetables to freeze are tomatoes, onions, bell and hot peppers, garlic and grated zucchini, because they freeze by simply slicing or chopping them up and then freezing them in a freezer-safe bag. For most vegetables, successful freezing requires a quick process called blanching. Vegetables contain natural enzymes that cause them to lose flavor, texture, and color over time, even when frozen solid. Blanching—briefly boiling the produce and then plunging it into ice water—stops these enzymes in their tracks. Prep: Wash your vegetables thoroughly and chop them into bite-sized pieces. Boil: Drop the produce into a large pot of rapidly boiling water. Start a timer immediately (most veggies take 2 to 4 minutes, but research the blanching time for your specific crop). Chill: Slotted spoon the veggies out of the boiling water and submerge them into a bowl filled with ice water for…
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