Your Freezer is Your Friend

If you are lucky, like me, you have a good friend who shares grapefruit from their tree with you, or maybe there happens to be a fantastic sale at the grocery store you can't pass up.  A few years ago I discovered grapefruits freeze wonderfully with no deterioration in texture or flavor and I was pumped. 

I generally stick a mindless show on TV or listen to Kelly Clarkson and start cutting.  One grapefruit will fit just about perfectly into a 1/2 pint jar.  Leave 1 inch head space on the top, cover and freeze.  In June, when the grapefruit look ill at the store, you pop one of these in the refrigerator and when it thaws, total bliss.  Not only are the little jars of grapefruit good all by themselves, but they are amazing in cocktails!  Ask me how I know.

The fun does not stop here.  The peel from the grapefruit make excellent compost.

If you happen to have a donkey or two, give them a few and see if they like them.  I generally toss mine into the compost and if the donkeys want them, they walk over for a snack.  I haven't tried to give any to the goats yet, but I will.  I have a feeling Jesse would eat them.  He likes just about everything I have offered so far. This is Jesse.  His adopted brothers are on the pickier side. 

There are so many foods you can save for later in the freezer.  Not only meats and ice cream, but bananas that are overripe or not, can be peeled and frozen in freezer bags for later use in smoothies, breads, ice cream toppings, etc.  Peppers and onions freeze terrifically along with berries of any kind.  Once in a while the grocery store will have ugly fruit marked down, maybe a tad past it's prime, and I bring it home, chop it up and stick it in the freezer for later.  You can take apples in season, for less than a dollar a pound, and peel and slice them for the freezer for pies or crisps later, too. 

I like to can, but sometimes you can't beat a freezer.  My husband, JR, is looking into a solar set up to run a smaller freezer/refrigerator in the case of electricity outages.  I don't know about you, but it would make such a difference if we didn't have power to have a way to keep the meat frozen and certain foods cold.  Such a difference!

The next time someone offers you produce from their garden or you see a super good sale at the market, snag it, prepare it and freeze it.  It might take a little time, but the rewards are there!