Freezing Green Tomatoes and Getting Ready for Storm Ion

Storm Ion is on his way and for us Florida folks we are preparing like it is a hurricane not a winter storm.  Well not prepping exactly like a hurricane but just as much work is involved in getting ready for the steep drop in temperature.
We decided to pick a lot of our green tomatoes and put them in the freezer. They are great for making fried green tomatoes.  First wash tomatoes and slice into 1/4 inch slices, second place on flat tray and place in freezer for a couple of hours, and  finally when the slices are frozen place them in a freezer bag and keep frozen until use.  To use thaw slightly and coat with your choice of flour, cornmeal, or bread crumbs.  Fry in hot oil , drain , and salt to taste.  I love my fried green tomatoes topped with feta cheese. 

yep it started out with a high of 70 and will end the day with a low of 27.  If we can survive until Friday we will be okay.  This is our first really cold weather for this season and at least it waited until January.  Back in November we had a day of cold weather and R didn't want to take a chance on loosing any of his tomatoes so we put the plastic up on the sides of the greenhouse.  Of course with 80 degree days we had to take down part of the plastic. So this morning in our short sleeve shirts and shorts we put all of the plastic back up and transferred what plants we could to the greenhouse.

 

Leaving only enough space for his heater

 

Yesterday we picked all the vegetables that were ready and put them in the freezer.   I shredded  and diced the cabbage and blanched it for the freezer,  The shredded cabbage is for making egg rolls  and the diced cabbage I use in soups.

 The cabbage was grown in our NFT system.  Nutrient film technique (NFT) is a hydroponic technique wherein a very shallow stream of water containing all the dissolved nutrients required for plant growth .
We transfered the strawberries from the NFT system into the floating pond system which is inside the greenhouse.  Since this is our first year growing strawberries we are not sure how they will survive the cold.  So we decided to be safe and not sorry and placed the strawberries where we can keep them warm. 
Here are few more pics of various vegetables growing in our garden

Onions

brussell sprouts

Mustard Greens

Bok Choy

Hope all these vegetables survive the freeze tonight.

Tomorrow will only be in the low 40's so we will probably be inside all day.  This will be bad for R because he does not like to be inside.  Wonder what he will do all day.