A Land of Plenty - a bit of “Acorn” news

submitted by Ruth VanBogelen, Acorn Farmers’ Market & Café Board

I love August and September every year because there is an incredible selection and abundance of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. It is definitely a Land of Plenty right now. How can we preserve some of these wonderful foods? It is actually a lot easier and less time consuming than you think. For example:

• Green beans. Don’t just buy a quart, ask the farmer if you can purchase a peck, half bushel or more. You’ll find out the cost goes way down when you buy in bulk – from any farmer who has a lot. You may even want to contact the farmer and place an order. A peck of beans will take you about one and a half hours to prepare for the freezer. Snip them, wash them. Decide if you like beans whole or cut up. If you like them cut up, do that next. Now, prepare to blanch them. Prepare both a boiling water bath and an ice bath. Use a large pot if you have one that will hold all the beans or just do the beans in batches. Fill the pot half full of water. Also use another container and fill it with water and ice. Heat the water until boiling. Drop in the beans and leave them for 2 minutes – yes – only 2 minutes. Transfer them with a slotted spoon into the ice batch as quickly as you can. Leave them in ice for about 5 minutes. I put clean dry dish towels out and transfer the beans to the towels and let them dry for about 30 minutes. Then I lay them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet or cake pan and put them in the freezer. You can layer the cookie sheets in the freezer. In about three hours, transfer them to a plastic bag and return them to the freezer. By freezing them individually, you can take out the right amount when you're ready to eat them.  
• Corn – Always buy at least a dozen ears – it is a better deal. Then process them the same way as beans except keep them cob and all in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Cool in the ice bath, cut the corn off the cob, lay corn kernels out on a cookie sheet to freeze for a couple hours, then into a freezer bag. If you grill your corn, skip the boiling water and ice – just grill the whole dozen ears and cut the corn off the ears you don’t eat and freeze.
• Blueberries and raspberries are even easier. Wash them, put them on a towel to dry for 30 minutes, lay them out on a single layer on a cookie sheet and cake pan for a couple hours and transfer to a plastic bag. These will taste amazing in the winter!
• Tomatoes and peppers for chili. Cut up the peppers and tomatoes into small cubes. For the peppers, I freeze them on a cookie sheet and then transfer to a bag, but for tomatoes I measure out 2 cups for each quart size bag, press out the extra air and freeze. Two cups is typically 15 oz – the size of a can of diced tomatoes.
• Vegetable soup mix. This is one of my favorite things to do! I seem to often have half a zucchini, a carrot, part of an onion, half a pepper and a handful of cherry tomatoes left over after cooking a meal. I just cut them up and put them in a plastic bag and into the freezer. During the winter, pull it out, mix with some broth, seasoning, and meat if you like, and make some soup!

Acorn Farmers’ Market & Café will be a non-profit food store in Manchester, MI next spring. Acorn Farmers Market & Café, PO Box 432, Manchester, MI 48158. The address will be 327 W. Main. To follow progress on this new food store which will sell locally grown produce, meat, dairy, eggs and more – all produce by local farmers – go to the web site  www.acornfarmersmarketcafe.org and like us on Facebook @ Acorn Farmers’ Market and Café.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.