Preserving Green Beans

I mentioned the other day that the worst part of preserving the garden harvest was preserving in 100 degree weather. Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and blanch and freeze last week's green beans. And YES it was 100 degrees outside!

For those of you unfamiliar with this process, here goes.

1. String, snap and wash your green beans as you would if you were preparing to cook them. Wash them well to ensure no flowers, critters or anything else you don't envision yourself eating get into your batch.

2. Boil a large pot of water, enough to submerge your beans in with plenty of room.

(My old faithful preserving pot)

3. Bring the water to a boil

4. Fill another large pot or bowl with ICE WATER

In order to blanch vegetables you need to submerge them in boiling water until they turn brightly colored (not cooked!). The vegetables are then quickly submerged in ice water to cool them down quickly.

5. Place the green beans in the boiling water, stir continuously (usually 2-3 minutes)

6. Remove the beans quickly and place them into the ice water, stirring as you add the beans. DO NOT POUR THE HOT WATER INTO THE ICE WATER WITH THE BEANS!

I love these dip strainers, I use them from everything from frying, steaming or quick straining. It has a long handle that doesn't heat up.

Notice the Green Beans are now a vibrant green. you could chose to place the beans in freezer bags and place them in the freezer.

I prefer quick freezing my vegetables so they freeze quicker and can be individual thawed as I often cook for just myself. Quick freezing also reduces the amount of water in your bags, thus decreasing the chances of your veggies being mushy when you thaw them. Lastly, quick freezing forms less ice crystals in the vegetables which reduces mushiness and creates a quick protective ice layer over each bean.

To Quick freeze.

1. Spread the blanched beans on a parchment or wax paper covered cookie sheet in one even layer.