Mm-hmm.

And so one of my very favorite ways to do this is with what I call a starter, and there's, uh, meal starters, soup starters, dip starters, beverage starters, and I'll give you one of my favorite examples.

Like, if you ask me what's my all-time favorite thing to freeze in the whole world, [laughs] this is what I'd say.

It's a chicken tortilla soup starter.

I preserve a ton of it every year, and to make it, uh, I saute peppers, onions, garlic, add in fresh tomatoes and simmer it with spices, and then add in sweet corn at the end, and now I've got this really flavorful, um, mixture with homegrown veggies.

And come wintertime, all I have to do is thaw a bag of this veggie mixture, add it to a pot with broth.

I usually add some, like, leftover chopped-up chicken, uh, a can of black beans, and I've got a really good homegrown, homemade dinner in, in less than 10 minutes.

Mm-hmm

So tell us about your newest book, The Freeze Fresh Meal Prep, what our listeners can expect when they pick up a copy, and anything else you want to talk about it.

Uh, yeah, I have a new book out.

It is the ultimate guide for freezing fresh produce in creative ways that you'll actually wanna eat, and it's different from other meal prep type books because, of course, as an avid gardener and orchardist, I wrote it through the lens of food preservation.

How can we take fresh, in-season produce and preserve it in a way that's, one, really delicious, and two, makes cooking a meal later easier? And so the book is filled with 160 recipes covering all of the common fruits and vegetables with things like soups, dips, beverages, and main dishes to veggie sides and baked goods, frozen treats, jams, and even pie fillings.

And then there's a, a unique category of recipes that I call starters, and a starter is the vegetable and herb portion of a recipe that's cooked together and frozen.

And then to make the dish, you just thaw the starter and add pantry staples or refrigerated ingredients to complete it.

And there are soup starters and meal starters and even dip starters, and I'll give you an example of a dip starter, one that I'm thinking about right now as I see my sweet corn is finally coming up today.

Why is that, and can anyone do it? Is it easier than the regular canned jam, or is it just something about the flavor? Talk to us about freezer jam.

All right, so tell us about your newest book, The Freeze Fresh Meal Prep, what our listeners can expect when they pick up a copy, and anything else you want to talk about it.

Uh, yeah, I have a new book out.

It is the ultimate guide for freezing fresh produce in creative ways that you'll actually wanna eat, and it's different from other meal prep type books because, of course, as an avid gardener and orchardist, I wrote it through the lens of food preservation.

How can we take fresh, in-season produce and preserve it in a way that's, one, really delicious, and two, makes cooking a meal later easier? And so the book is filled with 160 recipes covering all of the common fruits and vegetables with things like soups, dips, beverages, and main dishes to veggie sides and baked goods, frozen treats, jams, and even pie fillings.

And then there's a, a unique category of recipes that I call starters, and a starter is the vegetable and herb portion of a recipe that's cooked together and frozen.

And then to make the dish, you just thaw the starter and add pantry staples or refrigerated ingredients to complete it.

And there are soup starters and meal starters and even dip starters, and I'll give you an example of a dip starter, one that I'm thinking about right now as I see my sweet corn is finally coming up today.

Why is that, and can anyone do it? Is it easier than the regular canned jam, or is it just something about the flavor? Talk to us about freezer jam.

Wow

... um, without burning ourselves out and while still enjoying it.

Um, and I just, I love preserving so much.

I love taking seasonal abundance and turning it into year-round nourishment.

There's just something about that that makes me feel so grounded and so connected to nature and to, like, a humanness that is disappearing.

So I have done all of the preserving methods.

I love them all, too, but freezing for me is just so easy and so good.

Yeah

And let's talk a little bit more about that.

Okay.

I have...

Well, I'll give you one, my favorite savory, and then my favorite sweet thing.

So my...

I- I've frozen a lot of stuff.

My very favorite thing is a chicken tortilla soup starter.

But there are listeners that they're not gardeners, so is there, like, an easy step that they can take to even apply some of your principles and practices and recipes in their own lives? Like, if you have even just a small space to garden, can you make it work?