How does the end of the era of cheap food affect Maine? (buy, living in)

[Maineah]

Your question about what freezes and what doesn't has been answered by star and forest! I'd only add that whatever you see in a grocery store you can replicate at home. If you want to get really fancy with it you can get some liquid nitrogen and flash freeze stuff too. Flash freezing freezes things super quick so that ice crystals do not have a chance to form in the tissues of whatever you're freezing. It's the ice crystals expansion that tears apart the cell walls and makes the veggies and meat attain a limp or punky texture after thawing. I've had flash frozen corn on the cob that was excellent! Ice crystals will form eventually in the flash frozen products the longer they sit in a freezer at zero degrees. To keep the crystals from forming you'd have to store the flash frozen pruducts at temperatures well below zero. These temps are very difficult to maintain in a home setting. A vacuum sealer is also essential in keeping frozen food airtight to prevent freezer burn.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

In our experience, some things are better dehydrated: beans, peas, onions, garlic, mint, parsley, cilantro, mullein, ... [we do have a some dehydrated celery, but I would not recommend it]

Our chest freezer is outside, on the North side of our house [so it is never in direct sun-light], pretty much in a snow-bank. I doubt if it turns on all winter long. So our expense to operate it is not as much.

We freeze a lot of fiddleheads, they hold very well frozen

Oops, forgot about dehydrating. Great idea for things like onions. And I keep forgetting to ask, what are fiddleheads?

I have a 7 cu ft chest freezer outside as well and am definitely bringing it up when I move. I've often thought, while reading some of the posts about the winter weather that in winter time, I won't need to turn it on.

Originally Posted by starwalker

I would only freeze cooked potatoes. Onions store well and do not need to be frozen, but they can be (chopped). Garlic, again, I have never frozen as many varieties store well otherwise.

Do you eat lettuce cooked? If so, you can freeze it. Vegetables that are frozen do not have a proper texture, when thawed, to eat raw.

Good point. And I'll keep in mind about cooking the potatoes first and then freezing them. I love potatoes so that would be very beneficial.

There is also the famous "Ball Blue Book" put out by the canning jar company that gives the latest recommendations on how to both can and freeze foods. Be somewhat cautious, as a beginner, about using older versions of any reference; there are valid food safety reasons that have caused recommendations to be changed (I speak as an Extension Master Food Preserver.)

Great! Thanks for that recommendation as well.

Just to give you an example of how I store some of what I produce, year before last I grew LOTS of brown onions from the "generic" onion sets at the feed store. Nothing special about them that I could tell. I braided the large onions after the tops dried a bit -- with twine braided in for extra strength -- and then hung the braids in my back room and in the kitchen. I was using up the last of the onions from the braids when the next year's crop came in. Yeah, a few of them went bad, some were a bit soft (still ok for cooked dishes) and some started to grow (still ok to use.)

I've never tried to do that but I'll definitely work on it. I know garlic lasts awhile and may not even be a problem but I've never used brown onions...think I'll try to grow some in a small "experiment" garden and see what happens.

Originally Posted by starwalker

I almost always dry the LEAVES of the celery, if I am chopping it up in something, like a Waldorf salad, that doesn't want them. That works well for me.

Green beans, peas, onions... dried... in my world are really only good in soups. Cooking them as a typical side dish finds them severely lacking in texture and taste. For that purpose, we freeze. They can also be pressure canned but you will have a texture much more like store bought canned foods.

Herbs are, of course, easy to dry and if you use a lot of them in cooking, you can save a BUNCH!

Definitely. I got a cheap o food dehydrator but I'm going to practice doing some of this stuff and see how things go.

I also agree about the texture of some foods and will keep in mind, frozen if going to cook. Dehydrated if a spice or herb. Potatoes cooked then frozen. And get to reading books on canning.

Some day I'll venture in to dehydrating meat! Be scared!

[Maineah]

I bumped a fiddlehead thread for you to look at. There are photos. They are a spring treat in Maine.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Your question about what freezes and what doesn't has been answered by star and forest! I'd only add that whatever you see in a grocery store you can replicate at home. If you want to get really fancy with it you can get some liquid nitrogen and flash freeze stuff too. Flash freezing freezes things super quick so that ice crystals do not have a chance to form in the tissues of whatever you're freezing. It's the ice crystals expansion that tears apart the cell walls and makes the veggies and meat attain a limp or punky texture after thawing. I've had flash frozen corn on the cob that was excellent! Ice crystals will form eventually in the flash frozen products the longer they sit in a freezer at zero degrees. To keep the crystals from forming you'd have to store the flash frozen pruducts at temperatures well below zero. These temps are very difficult to maintain in a home setting. A vacuum sealer is also essential in keeping frozen food airtight to prevent freezer burn.

Definitely stirring up my memory, this thread. A lot of this my parents did and when someone points something out, I get a flash, (speaking of), image in my mind of my parents doing the same.

I forgot about corn on the cob....I love that stuff. I'll have to learn more about liquid nitrogen and YES! I forgot about the vacuum sealer...we had one of those growing up, as well.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Just went to Amazon and found "Putting Food By" 5th edition, "Ball Blue Book", 2004 edition and will be getting those.

I also found "Canning and Preserving For Dummies". (Lol!) I can get this one for my Kindle right now so I'm clicking on that while I wait for the other two.

Thank you, again, for the recommendations!

[Kristin85]

Originally Posted by GatorMama

I also agree about the texture of some foods and will keep in mind, frozen if going to cook. Dehydrated if a spice or herb. Potatoes cooked then frozen. And get to reading books on canning.

If you love potatoes and want them to taste "right" after unfreezing, be sure to put only boiled/baked unmixed potatoes in the freezer. Mashed potatoes will taste too milky if you freeze them after adding milk/butter and au gratin potatoes don't hold up well after the sauce is poured on them. This may be common sense, but I've made these milky mistakes before.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by Kristin85

If you love potatoes and want them to taste "right" after unfreezing, be sure to put only boiled/baked unmixed potatoes in the freezer. Mashed potatoes will taste too milky if you freeze them after adding milk/butter and au gratin potatoes don't hold up well after the sauce is poured on them. This may be common sense, but I've made these milky mistakes before.

Boiled it will be. Thanks!

[Ode]

One of the best ways I have frozen potatoes for mashing is either baked or steamed. They don't have the extra water in them from boiling so they make a fluffier masher. If you bake, just cool and then scoop out the insides with a spoon, steamed can be peeled before steaming.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by Ode

One of the best ways I have frozen potatoes for mashing is either baked or steamed. They don't have the extra water in them from boiling so they make a fluffier masher. If you bake, just cool and then scoop out the insides with a spoon, steamed can be peeled before steaming.

Aaahh...good to know. I'm part Irish, potatoes are a must in my life.

Thank you for such great advice everyone!

[Maineah]

Potatoes will store all winter in a bin in the cellar. We used to have potatoes all winter and in the spring we had enough sprouted "eyes" for several rows of replanting.