Entirely too quickly is my answer.
Someone, who shall remain nameless (you know who you are and I love you dearly but I gotta mess with you a little), told me I am not posting often enough to keep her informed of the mundanity of my life. To honor her request, I am going to do a boring old garden and food post because let’s face it, I live in Iowa and I am married to a farmer. Guess what? Got freakin tons of veggies to waste spend my days cleaning and chopping and canning and freezing. OK, yeah that was harsh. It’s not a waste of time, it’s actually cool to grow my own organic stuff, but ohmifreakingosh it takes so much time to make it worth my while. I sorta love my other hobbies better than gardening. Like anything with yarn. Or cats. Or that involves sitting on my ample ass with a cup of tea doing nothing but being zen for awhile. I’m really focused on finding zen moments lately and gardening just interrupts my flow.
Enough of the bitching already. You would prefer useful information here, and so would I. Without further ado, I present to you how to freeze 15 pounds of carrots in less than 3 hours. I could go back to bitching here that it took 3 hours to save myself $30 but that would be counterproductive.
Step 1 ~ harvest & clean all those badass organic carrots
Step 2 ~ cut those babies up, coins/slices are my thing but you may like chunky-finger-sized for stew & pot roast, or maybe stick-ish is your thing ~ make them your own, gurl
Steps 3 & 4 ~ blanch dem bitches (3 minutes in boiling water), followed by plunging them in an ice water filled sink (which btw was bleached clean first – safety first gurl)
Steps 5 & 6 ~ flash freeze (which yeah, ain’t as quick as it sounds) by putting a single layer on a parchment covered cookie sheet & ignore them for about 30 minutes while they firm up in the freezer (you can also use waxed paper or silicone baking mat ~ my fav)
At this point you are finally allowed to find your zen moment.
do do do do…do do do do…(that’s supposed to be the Jeopardy theme in your head)
BAM! You have enough frozen organic & beautiful carrots to last you about 12 years
(not really, but maybe)
I mark ziplock freezer bags with the date and pop in the frozen carrot coins. They store nice and flat, and you don’t have to slam them repeatedly against the kitchen counter to break them up when you are ready to use them. Unless you wait 12 years to use them, then all bets are off. THAT is the magic of flash freezing.
Oh, and one last thing…if you have friends with horses, save the stuff you might compost or throw away. I have a Rowdy and a Rudy horse that want to marry me after the treat I gave them today 😉
(I’m not THAT kinda gurl, get your mind outta the gutter)
Make today ridiculously amazing my friends ~ Mwah!
yarnchick 
You’re a well domesticated little thing, aren’t you?! Words like “flash freeze”, “harvest” and “blanch” aren’t in my vocabulary much, I am in awe of your cleverness!
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I’m so domestic is hurts😜
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My son was asking me about freezing veg the other day, I am going to send him a link. It’s all very clearly described.
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Cool! Hope this helps!
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Very nice Lisa. You have explained the simplicity (NOT) of flash freezing vegetables. You made me laugh and brought back memories of my childhood when we would sit and stand with Mom de-stemming, snapping, peeling, etc. to have those beautiful jars of vegetables and fruits on the shelves. Thanks for the memories and the laugh (cause you know I needed it). Love and Hugs, Tamara
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Love & hugs right back at ya 😉
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Greetings from Texas. I just love reading your posts as they bring back marvelous memories of my childhood, spending time with my grandmothers and several of my aunts and one special cousin, learning how to can any number of vegetables. Have you ever pickled carrots? It is one vegetable that I never realized even could be pickled until we moved to Germany. Certainly no one in my family ever pickled carrots and, as a child, I probably wouldn’t even have tried them. Pickled carrots was certainly not a part of my childhood. However, after moving to Schweinfurt in the German state of Bavaria, I discovered just how delicious they are and how easy they are to make. The second year we were there my adopted Oma taught me how to pickle them. I ate so many after I pickled my first batch that my skin and urine turned orange! Most embarrassing…
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Thanks for sharing😊
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