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Save Money and Time Freezing Food Well

Feeding your freezer is one of the easiest ways to save money and time in the kitchen. Double or triple the quantities of a recipe that you cook, then eat one yourself right away and "feed" the rest to your freezer. It will feed you back when you want strawberries in February or a loaf of bread in August.

• You can get the lowest prices by buying in bulk in season
• You'll also be creating your own ready-to-eat meals, especially useful around holiday or other crunch times
• If you are trying to eat a higher percentage of local food, stocking up on produce in season will help you make it through the dark days of winter without reaching for produce shipped across the equator

In mid-June, I froze 15 pounds of local, organic strawberries from Vollmer Farm and used another 10 pounds fresh. A five-pound box at the farm stand was only $14, a big savings from the $5 a pound I'd paid the week before at the farmers' market. That comes out to just $2.80 a pound or 51 cents a serving. And the berries couldn't have been any more ripe or delicious.

Flash Freeze for Best Texture

Freezing creates ice crystals between the cells of the food that is being frozen. To restore balance, the water inside the cells flows out but the salt is trapped inside. Cells with too much salt inside will break, making the food mushy. But if you cool food well before freezing it and freeze it quickly, this process doesn't have much time to do damage.

That's strawberry sauce in the freezer bags below, made using the strawberry shortcake recipe. I'll use the sauce for shortcake, with vanilla pudding, or just as is during the winter.

Package the food well, label it, and list it so you can make good use of it.

• Package food in freezer-safe material. I use freezer-quality plastic bags and storage containers for liquids and heavy aluminum foil for solids.
• Air leads to freezer burn. Squeeze air out of freezer bags or suck it out with a straw. Use the straw only for larger or heavier food that won't zip down your lungs. I learned this tip the hard way by inhaling bread crumbs.
• Label each package with the contents plus the date (month and year). Also list it in your freezer inventory. The inventory lets you check what's in the freezer without actually digging around in it while the cold air rushes out.
• Cool food in the refrigerator or outside before putting it in the freezer.
• Think thin: lay your food out on a cookie sheet so the cold can get to the center as soon as possible. Once it's frozen hard, you can stack it.
• Show your freezer the seasons. Freeze fruits and vegetables in the spring and summer. During the fall and winter, replace them with bread baked when you are glad to have the extra heat from the oven.
• As you take food out of the freezer, update your inventory list.