Crystal Schmidt - Freeze Fresh: The Ultimate Guide to Preserving 55 Fruits and Vegetables for Maximum Flavor and Versatility

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Edited by Sarah Guare Slattery and Carleen Madigan

Art direction and book design by Carolyn Eckert

Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications

Cover photography by Robert Olding/Studio Eight

Interior photography by Robert Olding/Studio Eight, ix,

Additional photography by Andrea Niosi/Unsplash,

Food styling by Madeline Fitzgerald

Text 2022 by Crystal Schmidt

Ebook production by Slavica A. Walzl

Ebook version 1.0

July 19, 2022

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To all of the home preservers who have come before me, who have been growing and putting up food for their families for generationseven before the modern marvel of refrigerationthank you for your inspiration.

By Eve Kilcher, author of Homestead Kitchen and costar of Alaska: The Last Frontier

Growing up on a small family farm in Alaska, gardening and preserving food have been part of my life since childhood. In my twenties, I became inspired to integrate regenerative agriculture and a more self-sufficient lifestyle into my work and started a commercial organic vegetable garden on my familys property. A few years into this endeavor, the Discovery Channel contacted my husband, Eivin, and me to be part of a show they wanted to create about living off the land in Alaska, called Alaska: The Last Frontier. One of the greatest gifts the show has brought to my life is the ability to share with a wider audience our passion for living a healthier, more self-sufficient lifestyle in which we give back to the earth and humanity more than we take (not a small feat). I have always believed that it is important to feel connected to where our food comes from. When we do, I believe our own health and the wellbeing of our community are positively impacted. You could say that food and health are my faith and devotion.

Crystal has been such an inspiration to me, prompting me to try many new things. She truly embodies the homesteading spirit and is always willing to share her knowledge in a way thats easy to understand and approachable. Her love of heirloom beans is contagious and is what sparked our social media friendship. I am now obsessed with growing her beans in Alaska, which, let me tell you, is not easy in our short growing season! It is so neat to trade resources across the country with another food lover and gardener.

As one of the most thorough people I know and an incredible cook, Crystal is the perfect person to write a preserving and recipe book. I trust that if I follow her instructions on how to make anything, it will be successful and taste heavenly. There are few comprehensive resources for preserving food through freezing, and this book fills a huge gap. Freezing is an essential way to preserve food and is much easier and more foolproof than canning. I think the more accessible we can make food processing and home preserving, the better.

The techniques in this book will allow anyone to put up high-quality in-season produce, whether they grow it themselves or buy it in the store, to enjoy year-round. I hope you glean as much inspiration and practical knowledge from this lovely book as I have.

Whether you grow your own food, buy from a local farmer, or are simply looking to put up bulk produce that you got a good deal on, freezing is an excellent way to preserve whats in abundance now and to tuck it away for later.

All my life Ive had a spark in me to grow and preserve food. One of my earliest gardening memories is of sitting in the dirt in my grandmas garden when I was just a little girl, unwrapping and eating ground cherries while she weeded. She taught my dad to garden, and he taught me. I grew up eating a lot of homegrown food, and Im incredibly thankful for that.

Theres a grocery store just 10 minutes from my house, but that doesnt stop me from putting my heart and soul into growing my own food every year. My fella, Karl, and I pack a lot of gardening into a short growing season on our homestead in Wisconsin. We preserve all we can, then ride out the winter.

For me, growing food is grounding; it makes me feel connected and whole. I share a lot of our life on social media and on my website, and I find great joy in inspiring others with what were growing, eating, and preserving. I wish that more people could experience growing their own food. I truly think it could change the world.

In the chapters to come, youll find three main types of content:

1. thoughtful, detailed freezing techniques for common fruits and vegetables
2. delicious recipes that freeze well, letting your produce shine