This post is from Our Journey Westward © 2006-2014 Cindy West. All rights reserved.
It’s garden time again! I just love this time of year – even though it keeps me VERY busy. I feel so productive caring for, harvesting and putting away things from the garden. Two of the first crops to fill our home this summer have been zucchini and onions.
I haven’t had much experience putting either of these away, so I did a little internet research. It seems as if the quickest and easiest way to save these veggies for later use is freezing them raw. What could be simpler than that?
I grated the zucchini and placed it in freezer bags in two cup portions since most of my normal recipes call for about this much grated zucchini. So far, I’ve frozen 20 cups!
With the onions, I sliced some and chopped some. I didn’t worry about measuring since frozen onions come apart with a quick tap on the counter. One website said to place the onions on cookie sheets and freeze before bagging, but I didn’t have time to fool with that. 
Both of these will need to be used in cooked recipes since they won’t hold their original texture. For the zucchini, the directions said to add any liquid in the bag (after thawing) to the recipe since it will be the juices that are normally in the zucchini.
Mahayla and Caleb grew carrots this year. They were able to can 10 quarts – and I only had to supervise! Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the finished jars.
Looks like green bean canning will be next on the list! Anybody have a really good idea for saving summer squash? I have attempted to parboil and freeze, but it turned out way to mushy to use, even in cooked dishes.
