How Farming Can Become a Time-Consuming Task
Written By | Jenny Flores
Cooking and baking from home is a big part of the farming trend. If someone wants to feed their family healthy food, they may start farming. But ideas that seem good at first can turn into hard tasks that take a long time to finish. Planning, shopping for, and cooking food can be hard work that takes time away from other farming tasks. There are simple ways to make healthy meals in less time, which is good news. If you plan ahead, you can bake a lot, freeze food, and make your own TV dinners. You can also keep your hard-earned crop from going to waste by freezing extra yard and baking food.
Make lots of baked goods.
Every week, either bake and freeze for a whole day or make twice as many meals. Soon, your freezer will be full of treats you made yourself. You can freeze food to keep it fresh, but there are other things you can do to make it taste better, lower your risk of getting sick from it, and save time and effort.
Make sure that any food you want to freeze is cool before you put it in a package. When you wrap warm baked goods, they can get mushy, and it could make other frozen foods in the freezer partially thaw, which makes them more likely to get contaminated.
Write the name of the item and the date it was frozen on the containers. This is the next important step. You might think you'll remember what's in all those freeze-dried meals, but you won't. Getting beets out of the fridge when you thought you were getting strawberries for ice cream is a bad thing. Labels that are simple to read help people avoid mistakes and save time.
Freeze the right amounts of food to make it easier to make meals. A family-sized lasagna shouldn't be frozen for a family of three. You could freeze both single servings and bigger portions for the whole family.
Last but not least, rotate your food in your home kitchen like you would in a business kitchen. When you store food at home, it's important to remember the "first in, first out" rule. This way of eating makes sure you eat your meals before they go bad and keeps food from going to waste.
Before putting away extra food, you should make sure your kitchen is ready for big cooking and baking. Make the most of the space in the oven by adding a heat-safe cooling rack to the bottom. This will give you another place to cook. Make sure your counter is clear the day you're going to bake so you can prepare and cool food.
How to Keep Baked Goods Cold
Most people don't know this, but it's easy to freeze baked goods, and it often makes them more moist. It's best to freeze baked goods one at a time before putting them in freezer bags or batches so they last longer and stay fresh.
When mornings are busy, it's helpful to have pancakes, waffles, and cookies ready to go. Let the extras cool all the way down, then lay them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze them. After the biscuits have frozen, put them in a freezer bag that has been marked and saved for later. Waffles and pancakes won't stick if you freeze them on a cookie sheet with waxed paper between each one. Make it easy to get to them by putting them in a jar or freezer bag.
Cookies can be frozen in two ways. You can keep a bunch of cookies frozen like pancakes so you have them on hand for late-night guests or quick snacks. They can thaw in the fridge or be heated up in the oven. Like the smell of fresh baked cookies? You could also make the cookie batter, wrap it up, and freeze it. Roll the dough into a log and wrap it in plastic wrap. Then you can cut it into cookies whenever you want.
There are different types of cakes that can be frozen up to three months after they are baked. Each cake can be wrapped in foil or plastic wrap. Before you frost the cake, put it in the fridge to thaw. Your buttercream filling will last up to two months if you freeze it. It should be put in the fridge overnight to thaw. Let it sit out overnight, beat it for a short time the next day, and then frost your cake.
I was surprised to find that bread dough freezes really well. Double the recipe and freeze the extra bread if you want to make more. After letting the dough rise, flatten it out and put it on a cookie sheet that has been lightly greased. After that, put shrink wrap around it. Bread dough can be kept frozen for up to six months. Take the dough out of the plastic wrap and place it on a baking sheet that has been lightly oiled. Then, cover it with a wet tea towel. Wait for it to thaw and rise until it's twice as big. After, bake it like always.
Things you need to freeze
Whole meals can be cooked and frozen, but it's also smart to keep a lot of leftover foods on hand. You can get more food from your garden and the farmers' market this way. It also cuts down on cooking time and lets you and your family spend time together while making the meal.
It's easy to freeze rice, which is used in a lot of meals. Read the package and follow the steps to cook the rice you want. Put it in a container or freezer bag and freeze it after it's cool. In a pan, heat water and frozen rice over medium-low heat. When you make stews or casseroles that call for rice, you can add the extra rice right away.
If the market or your garden gives you a lot of fresh veggies, you can freeze them in amounts that are easy to eat. You have to do some work before you can freeze vegetables. First, get rid of any leaves that are dying or going brown. You should cut up bigger leaves before you freeze them, but you can freeze small leaves whole. Make sure the greens are clean, boil them in small groups, and then put them right into ice water to cool down. Make sure they are well drained. Fill the freezer bags with ice water until they are ½ inch above the greens. This will give them room to grow. Greens can be frozen for up to a year.
You can also freeze herbs and still use them. Put the leaves in ice cube trays after taking them off the stems. In order to use it, you should either cover it with water or oil and freeze it. Once the herb ice cubes are frozen, they should be kept in a freezer bag.
Eggs can also be frozen. To freeze egg whites, you need to separate the eggs and get rid of all the yolks. Freeze the whites in ice cube trays first, then put them in a freezer bag. For every four egg yolks, add either 1/8 teaspoon of salt (for hot dishes) or 1 ½ teaspoons of sugar (for sweet dishes). This will help the yolks freeze well. This also keeps the whites from getting too soft. It will freeze faster if you put it in ice cube trays first. Write on the egg whites whether you're adding salt or sugar.
To save time and money, feel less stressed, and enjoy home-cooked meals, it's smart to cook and bake in bulk. When we live on a farm, we try to do less work and think more. It should be the same in the kitchen too.
By baking in bulk, you can save money.
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