Have you been a busy little squirrel gathering nuts for the winter? I know I have been freezing, canning, and dehydrating like crazy. I love to freeze foods from the garden and Mr. Produce guy, but even with the best practices, they don’t last forever {the taste and texture start to deteriorate a bit}.Here’s a quick reference for how long frozen foods last:
Asparagus – 1 year
Beets – 1 year
Peppers – 3-4 months
Broccoli – 1 year
Carrots – 1 year
Cauliflower – 1 year
Corn – 8 months
Beans – 1 year
Leafy Greens – 8 months
Apples – 4 months
Apricots – 6 months
Bananas – 8 months
Berries – 6 months
Cherries – 6 months
Cranberries – 4 months
Peaches – 4 months
Fruit juice – 1 year
Nuts – 2 years
Butter – 9 months
Bread – 3 months {if you wrap it really well, I think you can get more time that this}
Pesto – 8 months {no cheese} or 3 months {with cheese} {I personally think you can get about 6 months with cheese}
I personally try to use most of what I freeze within a year. These are the “suggested” storage times, what’s your experience? Do foods last longer than this in the freezer or do you follow the guidelines strictly?
~Mavis
If you haven’t done so already, be sure and check out my How to Freeze Fruits and Vegetables tutorial.
JC says
I’m curious about freezing bacon, specifically Zaycon bacon. Anyone know how long raw bacon can be frozen? I also plan on cooking some of it and freezing it that way so we can have bacon at a moment’s notice. Now I’m doing the math and we would have to eat a pound of bacon for 36 weeks to use it all up. That’s 9 months! And I don’t think we eat bacon that often. I think I’ve just talked myself out of Zaycon bacon. But still, anyone have any experience with it?
Cecily says
It depends on your freezer. I’ve kept bacon in my deep freezer for over a year with no loss of quality.
Kate says
Don’t talk yourself out of the bacon! It is delicious!!! We freeze raw bacon that we either buy at the store OR zaycon (re-sized and packaged of course) with absolutely no loss of quality! I have pulled bacon out after a year and it is still just as tasty!
Cecily says
The type of freezer you have and how you package the food makes a big difference in how long the food will keep. Take strawberries as an example – In your freezer over your fridge in zip top freezer bags you might get 2 months, 4 if you use vacuum sealed bags. In a standard upright or chest freezer in zip top freezer bags 6-8 months, a year in vacuum sealed bags. A deep freezer will get you 1-1/12 years in zip top freezer bags and 2 years or more in vacuum sealed bags.
Susan says
I have a limit of 1 year on everything. Except bread products. I don’t have very good luck on those no matter how I package them! So 2 months on those.
I have an ancient upright freezer that I’m sure is wasting lots of energy, but it works GREAT. I defrost it once a year.
I use my FoodSaver for all meat and most other things.
I am thinking about buying a new dehydrator. I have an old one that I never liked. Bi-Mart has the Presto Dehydro Food Dehydrator # 06302 on sale this week for $39.99 I checked all around the web and that is a really good price!
Tina B says
I’m still using some of the tomatoes I froze back in 2011. I put them into stews and soups, so if any quality is lacking, we don’t know. The canned tomatoes from that year are still just fine. The way my plants are producing right now, I’ll be canning/freezing again, but must keep space for Zaycon chicken! (I love how the person above talked herself out of ordering their bacon. I did the same thing to myself. We eat bacon maybe 3 times a year.)
I have zucchini in my freezer from about 5 years ago and will bake with it. I have one package of frozen peppers from 2 years ago and haven’t had any issues with quality when using those recently, either. I just use them for fajitas.
darlene says
I’m with you Tina. My pesto with chesse still is amazing after a year (I freeze it in half pint canning jars with a light covering of oil on top). Almost everything (yes except bread) really seems to keep loads longer that what I see recommended. I haven’t really noticed anthing off in taste, we do try to do a yearly use or toss as well however, like if I know we are about to freeze more of something and haven’t used what’s left in there from the prior year (I made spaghetti sauce and canned it from my frozen tomatoes from last years garden and canned blackberry syrup with the berries that were also left from last year, etc.)
Darlene
PS We did attempt to eat fish from 2009….not so hot!
Sara says
I make it a point to keep an inventory of what I have. Starting in September we eat everything from the freezer to make room for the first of the year sales. So right now after canning and freezing we are set all winter long. The only thing I will buy is milk and extra special sale items. We had turkey breast on Sunday yum, and pork chops on Thursday. I have a free ham from work in their I think I will wait for cooler weather. YUM YUM. I am with Mavis yearly clean outs or pitch.
Cassie says
I didn’t even know you could freeze nuts!!! I only have a small garden and a small freezer so I go through about once a month and make recipes that week that use up stuff that has been in there awhile.
Susan says
Freezing nuts keeps them from getting rancid.
Lorraine says
I have 2 deep freezers and 2 fridges, What I do is a weekly mini rotation, taking from the deep freezes for the week and moving to the fridge/freezer upstairs. I cook for 5 men everyday so no worries here about things going bad. lol. I keep my freezer meals, breads, pizza crusts in the upright which is really nice to be able to see whats in there, smoothie mixes and ice cream in the 2nd fridge/freezer and meats in the chest freezer. Rotation day isn’t much fun but it saves on opening the freezer doors all the time.
Freezer cooking for me is 2-3 lbs of bacon (good for about 3 months), 5- 10 lbs of hamburger for chili’s and whatever (good for 3 months or more) I cook 2 roasts at a time, one for a meal and one for the freezer. They stay good for a couple months when cooked. I just pulled out some frozen mozzarella cheese that had been in there for 6 months and its still good. I also do a lot of ‘freezer to crock pot’ meals, pancakes, waffles, soups and even sandwiches which get used up too fast to know how long they last. I know I sound kookoo but this all saves me a lot of time, work and money.
Jennifer says
I didn’t have a good gardening year this year so not much in the freezer, but what I do is take the leftover bits from veggies that I have cut up(carrots, onion, celery, garlic, etc) and freeze them to make a quick veggie broth. I am hoping for a better veggie year next year.
Star says
oh wow i eat stuff wayyyyy older than everyone. maybe i lucked out and just have a good freezer but i pull stuff out that is several years old and eat it
Sakura says
Zaycon Bacon does well in the freezer. We always buy it once a year, share a few packs and freeze the rest. Turkey bacon doesn’t freeze for as long. I clean out my freezer twice a year and try to use up items that are hitting a year. Last week when I cleaned it out I found some 2010 items that I just tossed in the garbage. If you want your bacon to last longer you could always pressure can it.
I started using a white board marker on my freezer to keep track of items that need to be used quickly. When its gone I just wipe it off. So far so good.
mabel hastings says
In my experience, cranberries keep WAAAAy longer than 4 months, more like a year, without any degradation.
Kamiko says
i cant really say because i dont really pay attention to the expiration dates. when i defrost it, if it smells good ro looks good, i use it. if it looks iffy, then out it goes. i dont like throwing out food, and if i can eat freeze it to save it for 6 months down the road, i do. i have a small floor freezer i got form Home Depot. everything seems to last forever in there!