During the Florida fall, pepper plants seem to really produce peppers like crazy. I had to harvest all my peppers in anticipation of that random pre-Thanksgiving freeze. I think the final count was 54?

Fresh peppers can be expensive, even more so prepackaged vegetables, fresh or frozen. I usually use peppers in spaghetti sauce, chili, fajitas, stir-fries, etc., so freezing them in strips or diced was the way to go for me!

Start by washing your peppers. Even if you did not have to spray them or fertilize, they may still have dust or little bugs on them.

Hold peppers upright, and slice off the wall of the peppers all the way around, leaving the seeds and core.

Cut into strips and/or dice the peppers.

No need to blanch, simply spread them out on a cookie sheet and freeze. If you happen to think of it, stir them after about an hour so that they are separated.

Do not skip the freezing-on-cookie-sheet step unless you have a recipe that calls for a one quart block of frozen peppers. 🙂

Put the peppers in freezer bags, label, and place in freezer.

I love having pepper strips ready to go into a stir-fry. It is so convenient to be able to take a small handful of diced peppers and to toss them into an omelette or spaghetti sauce.

Although I love to can my easy two ingredient blueberry jam, apple butter, and quick peach jam; I have to admit that quickly freezing a crop is the simplest way to preserve it for later.

Have you ever frozen a crop? How did it turn out?