Putting The Freeze On Summer Produce Paris

Putting The Freeze On Summer Produce
Paris

I had a melancholy morning at the farmers market on the Boulevard Richard Lenoir yesterday, watching the seasonal shift from summer to fall. The weather was mild, so I grabbed a half dozen stalks of rhubarb to make a compote. But when I got home and began to chop, I started regretting that I hadn't taken better advantage of rhubarb season -- nearly over, and I hadn't even managed to make myself sick of it yet!

I have always been strict about sticking to seasonal produce, not one to turn summer fruit into jam for winter. What's more, I don't have that much storage space, and my little Parisian freezer is big enough to fit two pairs of high heels. But it occurred to me that there might not be any harm in making an extra batch of rhubarb compote and freezing it for the rhubarb-less days ahead. The same idea would work for summer cherries or plums. And you could even stretch your love of summer strawberries by tucking fresh strawberries into the rhubarb compote, one of my favorite summer treats.

Do you freeze summer produce for the chilly months ahead?

Related: Rhubarb Compote recipe from The Kitchn archives

- Kristin Hohenadel blogging from Paris. She can be reached at kristin @ apartmenttherapy . com

Comments (6)

I don't freeze berries, but I do seed many many extra pomegranates and freeze those so that I have pomegranates long after their short season.

posted by EmmieB on September 15th 2008 at 4:37am
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EmmieB, I hadn't realized that pomegranate would freeze. They're on sale right now so I may just have to go down to the grocery store and get a bunch and then spend a while seeding them so I can have pomegranates all year round.

Thanks!

posted by sciencegeek on September 15th 2008 at 4:50am
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Our rhubarb season has been over for four months!

posted by cakekick on September 15th 2008 at 5:37am
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I freeze whole strawberries and mashed. The mashed get made into jam when it gets cold enough that canning in my apartment isn't hellish (or on the hottest weekend in spring, depending on how my timing works). The whole ones I like to eat frozen as dessert.

I don't really do any other fruits like that, although I'm not sure why. Nectarines might work and I do love them.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on September 15th 2008 at 5:44am
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I made jam for the first time this year and look forward to jam on toast with hot tea this winter. My CSA also does a lot of the preserving of seasonal produce for me! In the winter to keep up the variety they send along dried tomatoes, apricots, and whatever else they thought to prepare. Really livens up the weeks of winter squash and greens.

posted by roseslaw on September 15th 2008 at 10:22am
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I've got some green zucchini in the freezer, ready to add at the last minute to soups, a few batches of pesto, some slow-roasted tomatoes, and just yesterday I had cut up too many peaches for my pie so I thought, what the heck, and threw them in the freezer.
I love the freezer; I think it's one of the most useful tools in the kitchen. Where else do you put four quarts of chicken stock? The fifty pounds of grass-fed beef from your uncle? The four gallons of huckleberries your mom brought you the last time she visited?
It's absolutely not the same as eating these things fresh and in season, but I think it definitely has its place.

posted by sjbreeze on September 15th 2008 at 4:09pm
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