Freezing Carrots & Onions

[Rosemary]

Can carrots be frozen without blanching them first? Last time I froze broad beans and peas but blanched them first and it took me hours the hardest part was cooling them down enough to go in the freezer.

Do onions need to be cooked first before freezing or can I just slice them and put the onion slices straight in the freezer?

[cajary]

Hi, Roemary.
I freeze all my "hard" veg without blanching, now. Not sure about onions, there's a lot of fluid in them. Can't you dry them?
"Love grows where my Rosemary goes" by Eddison Lighthouse, I believe.
Brings back too many memories, for an old man.

[Rosemary]

What do you mean "old" ??????????????

Cajary how on earth do you dry onions?

[cajary]

Old, means should know better but never managed it.
Technically, you should pull the onions up, let them lay on the soil and they will produce thin skins on the outside while the sun(Ha Bxxxxy Ha) dries them. Then you should hang them in a dry, airy place and use them when you want to. This actually works given proper weather. In practice, I pull them and then hang them in a dry airy place. They should last for the winter. Actually I expected a bit more "pro" advice from allotment holders, sorry, you've just got me!

[john9159]

Can carrots be frozen without blanching them first? Last time I froze broad beans and peas but blanched them first and it took me hours the hardest part was cooling them down enough to go in the freezer.

The quick method is to boil water first, electric kettle is quickest, pour into large pan, immerse the veg, peas, carrots, broadbeans, French beans or whatever you have, and wait two minutes.

The veg is not supposed to be cooked, just heated enough to kill the enzymes which cause food to go off.

Drain the veg(*), pour in cold water and add ice cubes to speed up cooling, stir to cool quicker, drain well after a few minutes (no real need to dry on kitchen paper), spread out on a tray or plastic sheet in the freezer and occasionally move around so they don't set into a frozen block; this method is called open freezing.

(*)You could keep the boiled water in the pan if you have more veg to do and just transfer the veg into another pan.

Been doing it this way for years.

Bye

[paul]

I've heard of my fellow allotmenteers storing their carrots in sand. ??
Anyone heard of this method ??

[babcock]

Ther should be no need to freeze onions. Mine normally last through until March stored in a cool place. I use a lot of onions and they would take up space in the freezer better used for other things.

[Rumpleteazer]

I've heard of my fellow allotmenteers storing their carrots in sand. ??
Anyone heard of this method ??

I have also heard about carrots being stored in sand. I have never tried it myself, mainly because I have never been particularly successful at growing carrots!!! You need to make sure that wherever you store them is rodent free otherwise they are likely to be nibbled!

[greenthumbs]

Originally Posted by paul

I've heard of my fellow allotmenteers storing their carrots in sand. ??
Anyone heard of this method ??

funnily enough i saw this on a tv show the other day that's doing the rounds on UKTV gardens .. they layer the carrots in damp sand in a cylinder made of wood .. it had sections so it could be built up with a layer of sand on the bottom a few carrots smothered in sand and then layered again so on and so forth. storing outside on his allotment he had kept them fresh for a few of months - he snapped one open to show there was still a good quality carrot inside. quite ingenious

[pickleandpreserve]

The RHS has an imformative article about storing carrots in sand here.
Apparently it works for parsnips too.

[Sarina]

I've never tried for 'sand method' of carrots. I'm growing vegetables for few years and through these years I stored vegetables just like 'John'. I faced problem with storing onion. At first, I kept them in a cool place, but some of those didn't stay for a long time.

Sarina

[spes123]

Originally Posted by paul

I've heard of my fellow allotmenteers storing their carrots in sand. ??
Anyone heard of this method ??

There is some good information about this here I have never used the method as I never get enough carrots to need it. It does work for parsnips too but I prefer to leave them in the ground until I need them.

[JustGrowVeg]

For storing carrots, a good way that I found was to wrap them in newspaper, put them in a box and leave them in the garden shed! I did this with parsnips too. As the weather has been cold it's like a natural freezer!

Did this back in November and they are all still fresh and firm now

[Katkatkat]

I realise this is an old post but I wanted to comment on the freezing of onion. I don't like chopping onions, it is time consuming and makes me cry. As such, I regularly buy (yes, I've only just become a garden 'owner') lots of onions and have a chopping session, chuck them in the freezer and they're ready to be thrown straight in the frying pan. For something like a stif fry or onion gravy you'd probably want to use fresh as they do go a little mushy but if the main purpose is just to add onion flavour to soups or stews they work fine.