Using everything in your freezer?

[Two_Sheds]

french beans (probably best regarded as fresh only).

I don't like them fresh: I grow hundreds of plants, but for the dried beans (kidney beans)

[dominic10]

I have two chest freezers as I found one wasn't enough when I started to grow my own stuff and freeze it it also helps me to take advantage of special offers. I defrost them twice a year and bump up the stuff which gets buried. We are not organised enough to keep lists as my other half also shops. He also just chucks stuff as he can re-pack stuff to make it more efficient - him not realising my system (older at the top, newer underneath). Having worked in a regulated area I don't pay too much attention to dates (for fresh stuff as well) and I will refreeze raw stuff I have then cooked. I have seen a lot of food just chucked at work becaused it was 'out of date' and it was a big no-no to refreeze anything. I make lots of soups so older stuff gets added to the latest batch and last autumn we also started to make wine so I am not throwing out the tub of blackberries circa 2010 - I would also be quite happy to make an apple and blackberry crumble out of this I hadn't thought about storing grated courgettes - what a good idea Alison. As for jams and chutneys I also make a different jam each year. I like making chutney and I made a ginger squash chutney last autumn which is going down very well with the family so I'll make this again this year - we're eating it a little too early I think. In January I did find a three bid roast joint from Easter 2011 - we just cooked and ate it. At work it would have been chucked out. I did once buy and upright freezer thinking I would be better organised but went back to a chest freezer when this died as I think things can be stacked up better in a chest freezer

[taff]

following on from the conversation yesterday, I'm just making courgette soup and have found a pack of cooked pumpkin in the freezer...hopefully I can find the pumpkin cake recipe and use it up

[ladylottie]

I've managed to use up all of the fruit in the freezer except some damsons and a pack of sloes to make more sloe gin with when I get round to it.
Froze too many broad beans and still have loads to use. Have decided I much prefer them fresh so haven't planted so many this year. Found several bags of peas lurking underneath the broadies.
Hoping to defrost the freezer before the new seasons crops are ready

[Jeanied]

following on from the conversation yesterday, I'm just making courgette soup and have found a pack of cooked pumpkin in the freezer...hopefully I can find the pumpkin cake recipe and use it up

Here ya go!

Two_Sheds has developed the formula further so read down the thread!

[Uber-Uncool]

There are a lot of reduced-in-price items of meat at the bottom of my chest freezer and the freezer part of my upright fridge-freezer is very disorganised. This thread should provide that extra bit of a nudge to get me a bit more motivated to tackle it.

[singleseeder]

I have had a massive sort out in the garage and can now get to my freeer properly. For some weeks it's been a case of leaning over the stacked wheelbarrow and just pulling out what was near the top or just chucking yellow stickers in. Including a few carrier bags of carrots (9kg for 60p - yes really!) and leeks (3kg for £1).

I know there are tomatoes, beans, mangetouts, and a ton of ratatouille at the bottom to I think I will have to get them to the top to use before the new stuff begins. Let's keep this thread in our sights.

[Two_Sheds]

Froze too many broad beans ... Have decided I much prefer them fresh so haven't planted so many this year.

Me too: I'm going to do more peas in future, fewer broadies. I have jars and jars of pickled broadies but haven't tried any yet: just don't fancy them, they look like pickled eyeballs

[Matt94]

what i want to know is how did you lot manage to get peas to the freezer

[Farmer_Gyles]

C'mon, own up, how many of you have stuff lurking at the bottom of your freezers that should have been used?

i have a nice big chest freezer too .... i did have loads of ready meals (cook in bulk and freeze portions) and when my oven packed up a couple of months ago, i didn't starve .... (got a new cooker at the weekend)

i've just started the wine making .... so far used 9lbs rqaspberries, 10lbs blackberries, 4lbs gooseberries, 3lbs redcurrants, 1lb loganberries ..... still about 9lbs gooseberries, a bag of elderberries, a couple of lbs of plums and a few lbs of apples to turn into alcoholic beverage .... plus loads of dried fruits etc ....

we picked a mass of winemaking kit from freecycle over the weekend .... 8 big buckets, dozens of bottles, 17 demijohns, countless bungs, airlocks, corks, a fermentation cabinet, heater elements that can be dropped in the buckets, filters, a masher, and tons more stuff .... we currently have 7 demijohns on the go (should make 42 bottles) and another 9 gallons (should make 50+ bottles) in buckets ....

this year we're going for 99% self-sufficiency in fruit and veg and jams and pickles and chutneys and wine and cider etc .....

[singleseeder]

we picked a mass of winemaking kit from freecycle over the weekend .... 8 big buckets, dozens of bottles, 17 demijohns, countless bungs, airlocks, corks, a fermentation cabinet, heater elements that can be dropped in the buckets, filters, a masher, and tons more stuff .... we currently have 7 demijohns on the go (should make 42 bottles) and another 9 gallons (should make 50+ bottles) in buckets

I've just put in a request for some demi johns etc on Freecycle. Shhhh, don't tell anyone........... fingers crossed.

[Thelma Sanders]

I found some 2009 blackberries in mine yesterday were alright with some rhubarb in a crumble

[alldigging]

Can I share my most terrible freezer story?

I put ripe bananas in the freezer to use later for blending up into banana milkshake (Just add milk and blend)...

Anyway .. This one time I put the bananas in the jug, added milk and wondered why they weren't breaking down as quickly as usual.
I then started to wonder why I'd left the bananas whole as normally I slice them up...

Anyway a short while later it twigged that I was trying to make german sausage milkshake.

:-)

[Alison]

I know somebody who tried to make a plum crumble out of a bag of kidneys...............

[Peas'n'Kews]

I bought a chest freezer to store gluts from last year. So far, so good but will I get through everything before this year's crops begin? Will I use the many jars of jam so I can then use up the elderberries kept for more jam? How many portions of ratatouille can a girl eat?

C'mon, own up, how many of you have stuff lurking at the bottom of your freezers that should have been used?

Any tips, for good management?

We keep a ring binder folder with a list of everything in the chest freezer, and a separate list of everything in the fridge/freezer. We score things off as we use the, so we always have a fairly good idea of what we have and therefore what we have left to eat!

And yes, I make much too much jam and pickle and chutney. Its soooo hard just to let it go by (much of my jam is "foraged"). So just this last Saturday we did a Table Top sale for the local transition group (Why transition? | Abbots in Transition ), and sold jam, chutney, plants, bay leaves, cakes and the OH's walking sticks that he makes.

Our "stall" looked like this at the beginning:


We had a great time and made some money for more plants!!