Freezing Squash (and other bits of recent life)

Have you ever wondered how to freeze squash? In past years, we didn’t grow enough extra produce to freeze, but this year, we grew a lot of nice butternut squash.  Last summer we didn’t get too many (remember last year’s garden with many pumpkins but few squash?), so I just cut the few I had in half lengthwise and baked them in the oven in a little bit of water.  This year, though, we grew enough squash to freeze a lot of it.

Here are the steps I followed:

First,  cut off the top and bottom of the squash (so that the squash can sit on its end) and peel it. I used my regular vegetable peeler. It worked, even though the outside peel of the squash is a little tough.

Next, cut the squash into roughly one inch chunks, removing seeds as you go.

Place the chunks onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or wax paper and freeze for a few hours. (Make sure the pieces don’t touch or they will freeze together.)

Store the chunks in a freezer bag or other freezer safe container. (Be sure to date the bag.)

I’m thinking we’ll need to eat it within about 6-9 months, but I’m sure it will all be gone before then.

Squash is delicious. (For a snack, I just microwave it in a tiny bit of water, and add a little butter and brown sugar, but there are many ways to prepare it. ) It’s so good for you.

This year my daughter researched and discovered that marigolds repel insects in the garden, so we planted some to repel the squash bugs. They made the garden prettier too. They’re still blooming.

The pumpkins were so perfectly shaped this year. I’m really not sure why some years they look better than others…

My husband took a few days off over the last couple of weeks, so he spent some time outside reading. Sunny really bonds with him while he’s home.

We spent an afternoon at Union Station and visited the Cardinals store. Unashamed baseball fanatics here. (Or should I say Cardinals fanatics. National League Central champions–woohoo!) So we’ve also been watching a lot of baseball. (I say that as though it’s an unusual thing. No. We pretty much always have baseball on at our house.)

There are beautiful koi at Union Station too. They were hungry, and I didn’t have a quarter for the feed machine. Sorry koi.

Union Station is really beautiful and historical. Sometimes we go just to have a cup of coffee in the Grand Hall.

 (These are mostly phone pics, by the way, except for this last one.  Why is it that my old flip phone took better pictures than my current one?  I love my cameras, and photography is a huge hobby of mine, but sometimes it’s just more convenient to take pictures with my phone–like when I’m cutting up squash!  Plus I always have it with me, so I’d really like to know which phone takes the best photos. Do you like yours? I’d love recommendations.)

Enjoy your week!