01 June 2013

Early harvest

Food is starting to come in big handfuls. Today I've gathered asparagus and rhubarb from the garden. The greenhouse is yielding snap peas, garlic scapes and dill.* The Tuscan/dinosaur kale plants survived the winter in there, too. A few of them went to seed in the spring, but the others didn't and those are now delivering respectable quantities of fresh kale.


I froze the dill, blanched and froze the kale and peas, cooked the rhubarb and froze half of it and turned the garlic scapes into pesto. This is the work of moments - just blend together half a cup of flaked almonds, three-quarters of a cup of olive oil, ten garlic scapes, a squeeze of lemon juice and about 50g cheese (Parmesan if you have it - I didn't and used Cheddar). Again, I froze half of that.


Can you tell I've made a resolution to make better use of my freezer space this year? I always freeze loads of tomatoes every August and September, but I'm not usually so well-organised with everything else. I'm not sure how long this hyper-efficiency is going to last, but at least I've made a start!

*It's called 'dill-weed' for a reason, I've discovered...

4 comments:

Lisa from Iroquois said...

How do you freeze your dill? I have occasionally crammed the heads into ice cube trays and frozen them like that. I get more use out of it when I dry it and keep the tiny needles...great in scrambled eggs.

Amanda said...

Hi Lisa

I wash it, then pack a handful into a small ziploc bag, suck out the air with a straw and throw it in the freezer. I do the same with parsley and cilantro - it's not the same as having fresh herbs, but it's better than nothing in the winter!

Lisa from Iroquois said...

I find the ice cube version works well during pickling season, I just toss an ice cube into the bottom of each jar while I'm doing other prepare so that it has a chance to melt before the hot liquid arrives. I wonder if your method would work for basil.

Amanda said...

I don't think it would work with basil - the leaves would just go black, I would imagine. Everything I've seen about freezing it involves processing it with oil and then freezing it into cubes that way.