Freezing Corn and Zucchini

I have been a busy bee. Someone gave me a nice harvest of corn and zucchini. I got my husband on board (a very smart thing to do) and he's been helping me freeze it all.

I have prayed to live more providently. My food saver was broken. I asked my husband to check it out, and he quickly got it working again. I believe this was a direct answer to prayer. (We were considering going out and buying another one). In the last few days we have prepared 19 bags of corn and 8 bags of zucchini for the freezer. I made 8 loaves of zucchini bread and have five loaves in the freezer.

There is a deep satisfaction of storing food away. It's what our ancestors used to do. The harvest would come, and they would work hard to prepare and store food away for the winter months. In my religion, we are taught that the story of Joseph interpreting the dream of Pharaoh (with seven years of plenty and seven years of famine) is there for us to learn the same lesson of storing up during plenty for the famine ahead. We believe the years of famine will come. (I've wondered if that is as much a financial famine as it is a physical famine).

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED:

1.) Two working in concert together to prepare food for storage is so much better than one.

2.) Grated zucchini has so much liquid in it, even when it's drained and pressed well. Either put it in a baggie first and then use the food saver, or just use freezer bags. I sliced the zucchini up in rectangle chunks (to store it for Zucchini lasagna) and it worked great in the food saver - no juice leaking at all.

3.) I asked someone who knows WHY food gets freezer burn so fast. She said the reason is that the frost free freezers don't get cold enough to keep the food ice cold. (They have to get warm enough to melt the ice, then freeze the food, then melt the ice, etc. ). So she suggested to get as much air out of the bags as possible (food saver), and use a good quality bag.

4.) Quick bread freezes beautifully just wrapped in aluminum foil. Don't try to food saver it. It squishes it down big time.

5.) The skin of fruits and vegetables has the most nutrients of the food (I did know this). Try to leave the skin on whenever possible. I grated the zucchini with the skin on for the bread and for the freezer. I will get back to you how it works with the skin on in the freezer. Some people told me to take the skin off the zucchini because it might get too tough in the freezer. I am experimenting on this.