Freezing Green Beans

This will sound silly, but the idea of freezing food was kind of revolutionary to me. I mean, we all buy frozen veggies or fruit from the store--frozen food itself wasn't new, but freezing my own? I just didn't consider it for a long time. We had a small garden for a few years growing up, but it didn't produce enough to save. We didn't go to farmers markets or buy fresh food in bulk, so we just didn't freeze anything. I know it's obvious to most people, but it just didn't occur to me until, one day, I made a smoothie with one of those Trader Joe's bags of frozen fruit. It suddenly struck me that I could make that bag of frozen fruit myself.

Now, I hoard fruit in the summer. I buy in bulk from farmers markets or from my grocery delivery service (local, ethical, and organic!), or pick from organic U-pick farms. I chop and freeze it for jams, crumbles, and smoothies. 

This year, the garden actually produced enough veggies that I couldn't eat it all fresh--specifically my shelling peas, snow peas, and green beans. So I blanched and froze the extra. 

I recognize this is an utterly basic homesteading skill that most people possess--homesteaders or not. But in case you've never done it, or you need a kick in the pants to freeze some of summer's cheap and glorious bounty for use in the dead of winter, here is how I preserved my green beans:

Set water to boiling in a medium saucepan. (This day, I happened to be cooking for the week, and was making a recipe that involved boiling beans.  I decided to be efficient and just chop more than I need, then reuse the water to blanch the extra beans for freezing.)

Grab beans by the handful and rinse. Group them together so the ends are all aligned. Chop off the ends. Turn the beans, align the other ends, then chop those off too. Toss this handful in the pot of lightly boiling water. 

These should boil for about one or two  minutes. I tend to toss in the beans, then grab another handful to rinse and chop. By the time I am done chopping the second bunch, the first is done boiling. They should be a nice, vivid green. I fish them out with a slotted spoon and toss in a bowl of ice water. 

This stops the beans from cooking. (I like putting a sieve in there so I don't have to fish through the cold water later.) Once cold, I put them in a freezer bag. 

This is a very high-tech operation, as you can see. 

The process tends to go pretty quickly and works for nearly any summer veggie, although some need a few more minutes to cook than others.  You can easily find recommended times online.

Happy blanching!