I don't see my question being answered here

[carolyn137]

So here it is.

A good friend and Tville member George sent me some great melons from Colorado as he has done before, and Martha cut them up,one at a time, put some in my cooler for fresh eating and froze the rest.

The frozen ones were not good,the water came out when thawed and had to toss them.

Frozen fruits are always sold in the grocery stores,so what do they put on them to preserve them?.

I was also gifted with several pints of local blueberries and they froze beautifully,no problem.

George also sent me some peaches from Colorado and I knew they would turn to mush so ate them as fast as I could and gave some away

Anyone?

Carolyn

Carolyn, this brought back a memory - about 30 years ago I froze little balls of various melons - all different colours. I don't remember what they were like when we ate them, but I have just looked in the book I used. It says to cover the balls with syrup or juice, then freeze. Serve when still a bit frozen.

[coronabarb]

Agree with Diane, freezing in sugar syrup is supposed to help preserve the quality.
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/melon.html

Seems to me that whenever I tried to freeze melon balls/pieces, it did just what you experienced. Will look a bit more into it. Peach slices can be frozen with good results. I'd use lemon juice or fruit fresh to keep from browning and freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Pack into freezer bags or vacuum seal (the best choice) and freeze.

[ddsack]

I freeze my oversupply of extra melons in smaller chunks to be tossed in the blender in lieu of ice for smoothies. I don't think there is enough fiber in the cell structure to expect them to survive freezing with any shape left.

[Worth1]

I wonder how it would work with liquid nitrogen, freeze them so fast ice crystals dont have time to form.
But of course you would have to let then warm up some or you would freeze your lips off ans tongue off.
Worth

[pondgardener]

Carolyn,

I suppose I could prevent the problem and just send a single Western Slope peach and one Rocky Ford cantaloupe...but you know that both of those tend to hang out in groups for their own protection.

George in southeastern Colorado

[brownrexx]

I don't know why she does it this way but it works. A friend on my Organic Gardening Forum learned this from an elderly man. She wraps individual fresh peaches in foil and freezes them in ZipLoc bags.

Then you can take one out of the freezer, run it briefly under lukewarm water and the skin slips right off. Just slice the peach and it tastes just like eating a fresh peach.

I tried this last year and it really worked nicely although I do not see the reason for the foil. Maybe he did this before Zip Loc freezer bags were invented.

I do the same thing with whole tomatoes minus the foil. I use them in cooking though, not for fresh eating.

[Worth1]

I have found that well wrapped food in foil and or freezer paper far surpasses freezer bags.
We used to buy the plastic freezer containers for fish and fruit.
We would put the fish in and fill it with water same with peaches.
For the life of me I cant remember what we did with chicken but it want zip lock bags because they didn't have any then.

[carolyn137]

I didn't expect so many different answers, and I thank all of you and since I couldn't see this topic anywhere I'm sure it will help others as well..

But if coated with syrup before freezing, I'm not so sure that then that would have to be washed off.I mean the melons are sweet enough as it is.

Please remember that I no longer can prepare my own meals. Weekdays when no holidays Meals on Wheels delivers. For breakfast Freda will bring up a good breakfast bun from Stewarts with egg and cheese and some kind of meat,like ham or sausage. But if Martha is here she will make hash and eggs,the hash and other stuff I buy from Nueske's in WI and delicious beyond belief. A new box from there came today, Fed Ex Smart post which gets delivered to my local USPS since Fed EX direct home delivery here where I live is no good.

Depending on which one is here in the AM,then supper/dinner is prepared and that's always thermos of hot soup,Progresso or the wonderful soups I buy from Nueskes, and it used to be sandwiches of ham and turkey and onion, but honestly,I was getting tired of that,so now Martha buys prepared stuff from Stewarts,chicken salad,tuna salad,red bliss potato salad, etc.

And when Angie does the more general shopping on my list I have all sorts of fruits such as seedless grapes,pears, and whatever else looks good.

We're coming into apple season here,and I must have my Honeycrisps and several other varieties.

So when Herb comes Tues to cut my hair I'm going to ask him if he knows anyone in is church who could do some errands for me,like go for apples, pick up some meals from local restaurants, and most importantly pick up my meds at Rite Aide since both Martha and Freda are getting to the point where they don't have time based on what's happening with them, and I agree with their reasons.

On weekends Freda is here,she is not a cook,doesn't like even peeling cucumbers.

Too long an answer I know,but I will find a way to freeze some fruits, and all of you have helped me think about that.

Carolyn, noting that the only thing HOT around here are her two checkbooks,one semi-local one national, and her two credit cards when she calls to order books,foods,this and that.

[JLJ_]

Carolyn, you have some great answers -- the important thing to remember if you home-freeze melons is to eat them frozen -- not like rocks, but like cold ice cream -- I don't think there's any way that you can home freeze melons that doesn't result in a limp product if they're allowed to fully thaw -- but they're good eaten still frozen.

The sugar may be intended to remove some of the melon's liquid, rather than to season or preserve the melon pieces that you intend to freeze.

I've used salt to reduce liquid when freezing pieces of summer squash or eggplant with reasonable success. Success in the sense that they don't lose all their body and can be used a little more effectively in cooking -- or in fixing slices to pan fry, but again, I use them while still mostly frozen.

It might be that you could sugar the melons and let them stand a bit, then rinse, drain and freeze . . . and still eat them frozen but largely unsweetened. Or you could salt, rinse, drain as I do with the summer squash.

If I was doing that, and lacking the liquid nitrogen Worth suggested, I'd freeze the pieces on a tray to get them frozen as fast as possible, then package them.

The other avenue is to mix them with something. Smoothies were mentioned, but there are probably other ways you could mix them with just a little of something you like and freeze individual portions in liquid or semi-solid form.

Anything that is 'touchy' about being frozen I freeze in individual size ready to use amounts. My most common method these days is to put one of the cheap fold top plastic sandwich bags inside a round plastic cup that formerly contained cream cheese or yogurt or something of that sort, freeze, then remove, fasten the top of the bag tightly to exclude air, and put the one portion bags together in some larger bag or box for freezer storage.

Again, though, however you process them, the way to have 'pieces' of frozen melon to eat that taste like melon, is to eat them frozen, just thawed enough to enable you to get them down.

If you do some web prowling for info on 'how to freeze melons' you'll probably find some other good ideas. If I get a chance later I'll look in some of my old cookbooks and see if there are any inspiring suggestions -- but freezing melons is something I formerly wanted to do, so I think the above probably covers most of the suggestions I found.

Another possibility is to research ways to keep melons an optimum time, and just eat them as fast as you can, compatible with keeping your innards properly working.

If you find a great way to freeze melons, please blow trumpets and post it, as I bet there are many of us who've looked for one.

[Worth1]

I have had some ice cream at 30 below a few times and burned my tongue a few times too.
Use to store it in the rails of a ladder outside the truck.
Also made frozen fruit smoothies that way too with Greek yogurt.
You have to put a parka on and stir as it freezes.
Melon ice cream sounds good, done it with vanilla ice cream and cantaloupe.
Temper the ice cream till it gets soft enough to mix and put in chunks of the melon and put it back in the freezer.
The melon will stay frozen even after the ice cream starts to get soft again.

Worth

[kurt]

We have Latin supermarkets,fresh produce even street vendors here in Miami Dade that sells Wmelon juice all the time.Plenty of health benefits also.I have and still do freeze cubes(juiced melon) for some of the fancy umbrella topped cocktails around the pool at our barbecues.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Watermelon-Juice

http://www.whywejuice.com/8-health-b...irst-quencher/

[Worth1]

I forgot about watermelon juice.
Any watermelon I eat I collect the juice and scrape the rind.

I'm beginning to question my ethnicity.

Worth

[upcountrygirl]

I can't speak for the melons( what we call cantaloupe here or watermelon). I've never tried to freeze them. They are usually a seasonal produce item here that we gorge on during the summer. I freeze peaches in syrup lots of times. I've never tried eating them as is after we've unfroze them. Peach cobbler never goes wrong or unwanted in my family.

[Worth1]

I used to have my own personal container of frozen peaches in the freezer.
I would take it out open it and dig away at the frozen peaces for a while and put them back up.