The Freezer in Autumn

 

I am the sort of person who freezes things.  All sorts of things.  My vegetable garden is very small but it still provides gluts to be frozen.   Friends with larger gardens give me figs, apples, rhubarb so I freeze those in individual portions ready to eat with porridge or yoghurt.  So many vegetables are sold prepackaged but the packages are rather large so I freeze the excess.  And I buy frozen vegetables as well.

It seems silly to make just one portion of soup so I make a batch of eight portions and freeze seven.  It’s the same with stews and casseroles, vegetable side dishes and puddings. 

I’m quite good with labelling and I stock check my freezer every few weeks, but there’s such a lot in there.  And at this time of year it feels that not one more thing can go in there.  The door barely closes. Bags are wedged into corners.

And yet, beneath the chaos, there is something rather wonderful going on.  I am saving autumn.  Jack pulled up the tomato plants for me and I have roasted the tomatoes and pureed them before freezing (that takes least space) but there must be a couple of dozen small boxes in there.  Those single portions of stewed fruit seem too many to count but there won’t be too many to be eaten. 

There is something deeply satisfying about it.  Autumn may be the season of things dying back, but my freezer is quietly saying, Not so fast.

Soon my hibernaculum time will be here.  I know I will have very little energy in the depths of winter.  Those portions of tomato puree will be made into pasta sauces or delicious soup with very little effort.

The freezer may be chaotic, overstuffed and occasionally mysterious, but it is also my little time capsule.  Autumn is putting the garden to bed but I am making sure its bounty won’t be wasted.

How's your freezer looking?