harvest

My Gran always called it ‘putting up the ______’.  It took a whole day for each crop.  Putting up the tomatoes.  Putting up the squash.  Putting up the peppers.

I am not my Gran.

For one, I can’t get all my produce to appear at the same time.  Second, I’m lazy and all day long is way too long for me.  Especially multiple times in a season.  Third, not all my veggies ‘made’ this year.  (Read:  Have to buy Ripley tomatoes at the Kroger.)  So, here’s what I do.  It takes about five whole minutes:

1.  Gather and clean a small batch of veggies from the garden…or farmer’s market.

1.  Halve the bell peppers, slice the squash (not pictured) and cut out any bad spots on everyone.  Leave tomatoes and hot peppers (not pictured) whole.

prepped

3.  Steam with the top on for about three minutes.  (I just go till they’re BRIGHT .)

steam

Like so:

blanched

4.  Then run a bunch of cold water in a bowl and dump in some ice cubes.  (Diligent people have this prepared ahead of time, but I never do.)

bath

5.  Fish out your tomatoes and pull the loosened skin off.

peel

6.  Freezer bag ’em.  Squish out the air and toss them in the icebox.

bagged veg

Seriously, I do this while I’m making breakfast or something.  Two seconds.  Awesome.

Ivory