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If dehydrating is not for you, then how about freezing your produce? Freezing foods have been used for centuries and are one of the best ways of preserving food. Dehydrating is what we generally do, but we do freeze some produce. Once the food is dehydrated, you can store it in a cool place without any additional costs. But with freezing, you have the additional cost of electricity to run the freezer. The energy used may not be a significant amount, but it does add to your expenses.

We love to freeze fruit, though, and always have a supply of ready-cut, frozen fruit in the freezer. We mostly use this fruit to make delicious fruit smoothies or deserts. The beauty of making smoothies with frozen fruit is that the fruit is the only ingredient you need. There is no need to add ice, water, sugar, or anything else. Fruits that work best for smoothies are usually the pulpy fruits – banana, papaya, mango, pineapple. We typically add in a fresh avocado as well, as this adds an abundance of healthy fats. 

In the past, many people thought you could not freeze avocados because they have high-fat content. You can cut an avocado in half, remove the pit and the skin, and place it in an airtight plastic bag. You can also mash it like you are making guacamole and store it in a sealed bowl. You may not believe this, but you can place a whole ripe avocado directly into the freezer. If you are adding the avocado to a smoothie, peeling it before freezing would be most comfortable. However, if you are going to use the avocado for something else, be sure to thaw at room temperature for about an hour. 

When freezing fruit, you need to make sure you cut it up before freezing. Trying to cut fruit after it has been frozen is not recommended, as the knife can easily slip and cause a severe injury. Make sure you cut the fruit first. Cutting fruit first will also mean that the fruit freezes more quickly and more thoroughly.

You can make delicious frozen fruit desserts in minutes if you have access to a good juicer, such as an Omega 8003 or Green Star. Both these juicers, and many others, have attachments for making frozen dessert. All you need to do is get the frozen fruit from your freezer, feed it through the frozen dessert attachment, and have your frozen dessert ready to eat. It does just take a few minutes. A favorite frozen dessert has mango in it.

Sometimes we also like snacking on frozen fruit, especially on a hot day. All you have to do is mix a few different frozen fruits in a bowl, add yogurt, and you’re good to go.

As with dehydrating, the beauty of freezing your food is that you do not get any of those nasty additives that manufacturers seem to love.

Most fruits and vegetables are suitable for freezing. Watery produce such as whole cucumber and tomato are not fit to freeze either, as they do not taste so good once thawed.

You will need a freezer to freeze your produce, and if you already have one, then freezing food in the season could be a good option for you. But there is no sense of going to the expense of buying a freezer if you do not already have one. But if you have left-over produce going to waste, then even freezing a small amount can be worth it. And most people will have a refrigerator that has a freezer section.