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The freezer continued

Posted at 10:26 AM on November 13, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (4 Comments)

I was reading a book on preserving recently and I was about to give up on it for being too simple for our needs. It had three pages on how to choose a freezer bag and load it with something to freeze. I am beyond that right?

Wrong. Brendan was laughing hard reminding me of the "Watermelon Chili." You see. Our freezer can have skinned tomato puree or watermelon water at any given time. Turns out, if you don't label these items, they look pretty similar.

Poor Brendan was making chili for a dinner party and I tossed in the bag of "tomatoes" for him. Ooops. Watermelon. Now he had to make it look intentional that his Chili had a gallon of watermelons in it. Good thing he is great at what he does!

Apparently not everything is as simple as it seems. The new directions are: get bag that says "freezer" on it. Load it with stuff. LABLE IT. Freeze.

The Chili was good, but when it came time for margaritas, I wasn't hip to using the tomatoes that were supposed to be in the Chili. The watermelon ones are much better.

Comments (4)

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Let me in on my magic secret of Freezer bagging. Buy yourself a 32-oz Gatorade*, drink the junk, save the plastic container. Cut off the bottom and the top and you'll have a very sturdy plastic tube that fits just right into a quart-sized freezer bag. Filling up freezer bags is 10,000,000 times easier when the freezer bag has a stiff neck and you can set it down on the counter and it stays upright.

*Other beverage containers may work, but the Gatorade (see http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Gatorade.jpg) is just the right size, short and squat. PLUS it's stiffer than other plastic bottles.

You didn't need to make tomato margaritas! Make tomato bloody marys!

Posted by Addi | November 13, 2008 11:08 AM

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We assign months to people and everyone has the opportunity to submit their favorite attempt at a cocktail. For whatever reason, it was both Chili season and margarita season. (How those both collide, I am not sure)

But.. on the plus side, we had a fantastic bloody mary event with all sorts a pickled goodies to put on top. It turned into quite an event in high garden season. My favorite entry was the picked okra.

Posted by Sareen | November 13, 2008 11:14 AM

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Sareen, This is unrelated to your freezer post, but I know you really liked Farm in the Market - I buy my chicken from Callister Farms at the St Paul Farmer's Market and I just got this newsletter From Lori Callister - Thought you might appreciate the sources of their chicken. November 13, 2008

Lori Callister

Callister Farm

Dear friends,

Greetings from the farm! With the wind howling and a cold rain falling outside, I find working at my computer writing you this letter to be very enjoyable. I hope this letter finds you well and happy. Our family is doing well.

Alan and I returned last Tuesday from Turin, Italy. We were sent there by Slow Food MN. as 2 of the 20 Minnesota delegates to Terra Madre. What an experience! There were over 7,000 people there from 153 countries. Most people attending were farmers/producers such as us. Virtually all attendees were involved in the organic/sustainable/local food movement. There were work shops each of the five days relating to food production/marketing/protection and preservation of local food systems and cultures. Each day there was a truly international marketplace with vendors spreading their wares on the floor and selling their products that they had carried with them from their homes. What a sight: the smells – the colors – the sounds. As if that weren’t enough, the worlds largest artisan food show, the Salone Del Gusto, was also going on next door. We sampled everything from lung and spleen sandwiches from Spain to smoked caterpillars from equatorial Africa washed down with mead from Poland – I preferred the mead. There will be a “show and tell” gathering on Sunday December 7th. The location hasn’t yet been determined. Please check the Slow Food MN. web site for further details www.slowfoodmn.org It will be a very interesting and fun afternoon.

Meanwhile, back to reality here at the farm. We are gearing up for the Thanksgiving turkey event of 2008. We are sold out of turkeys for this year. If you did order from us, we will be delivering turkeys on Wednesday Nov. 26th. From noon – 6 pm at the downtown St. Paul Farmer’s Market.

Many of you have been asking where you can buy our chicken and eggs now that Farm in the Market has closed. We are pleased to announce that Seward Co-op has been selling our eggs for several weeks now. As an introductory special they will be selling our eggs at a reduced price this week and next. This past Monday Chris, Seward’s new meat manager, visited with us and toured our farm and processing plant. We are working out details with him so they can sell our chicken after they move into their new store in January. This is an exciting opportunity for our family and our business. We hope this will make it easier for you as well. Communication will be critical so please feel free to speak with either Heidi or Chris to let them know how much you enjoy our chicken and any suggestions you might have as to what cuts/parts you will buy. Ann Yin’s new store – Local D’Lish located at 208 N. 1st. St. Minneapolis, has been carrying a limited selection of our chicken. The Golden Fig located at 790 Grand Ave. in St. Paul carries our chicken and eggs, as does Eisenberg’s Produce at 10th. and Jackson Sts. in downtown St. Paul. We will continue at the St. Paul Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings until December. If you’re dining out you will find our chicken on the menu at Lucia’s on 31st. St. in Minneapolis and at the new restaurant, Moto I on Lyndale Ave. south in Minneapolis. If you have any special requests please feel free to email us at henhouse@clear.lakes.com

I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, great food, joy and laughter. I’ll write again before Christmas. I enjoy hearing from you as well so please keep in touch. Be well, safe and happy.

Sincerely,

Lori

This newsletter was sent to you by:

Lori Callister

Callister Farm

52237 170th. Ave.

West Concord, MN. 55985

Posted by Diane L | November 13, 2008 12:31 PM

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Diane - Thanks for the email. I just can't move on sometimes. Life was easy for me! I guess it can't always be all about me. -sareen

Posted by sareen | November 25, 2008 12:32 PM