Garden Fresh: Freezing Green Beans

Since it's time to harvest some of those goodies from our gardens, I figured this would be a great time to begin sharing tips, tricks, and recipes for those garden harvest items. This is also useful for those Farmer's Market shoppers who aren't too familiar with what to do with those market finds.  As always, please share yours as well. I'm always interested in seeing what great cooks you all are!

Today's post is intended for those green beans. I love green beans and since they have started to appear, I figured I'd freeze the first harvest I got. I've never frozen green beans before, but it's really not that difficult. If I can do it, anyone can!

First things first, you have to wash those things. I put mine in the sink to soak for a few minutes and then drain and repeat. Followed by a good rinse. My best friend, Bethany, and I don't use any sorts of chemicals on our garden. It's organic and safe for everyone (and anything) to eat. That means I inspected the beans for any bug damage or habitation.

Then, I called my two sons in to help me snap off the tips. My oldest used a knife, because he's that sort of kid. He's a tween, so knives make him feel like he is ever closer to adulthood (not so fast, little man). My youngest son thought he was the greatest thing to ever occur to green beans, because he could get the tips off faster than anyone. Works for me! The faster we get this done, the sooner I can move on to other things.

Once the ends of the beans are off (don't waste those tips...stick them in the compost bin or see if a friend with a farm wants them to feed to their animals), I rinsed them again. My sons have cooties, so another washing was necessary. Then, I got a pot of water boiling. Once it was at a nice rolling boil, I added the green beans. I read that you can either stick the beans in the water for only three minutes to blanch them or you can leave them in there until the water returns to a boil. I left them in until the water returned to a boil.

Once the boil started back up, I immediately removed the pot from the burner and dumped them into a strainer in my sink and began rinsing them with cold water. This stops them from cooking anymore. It took about ten minutes for this. Once they were nice and cold I placed them on some paper towels to dry (no, I haven't eliminated paper towels yet...however, Seventh Generation towels are the only thing I use in my home. Great product!).  Once the green beans are nice and dry I stuck them in some quart freezer bags, labeled them with the date, and stuck them in the freezer. Easy peasy!!   

Now I have garden fresh frozen green beans ready when I need them. I'm going to can the next batch I get. I'll be sure to post my technique on here when I harvest some more. If you have some good green bean ideas, please share them. I'm always looking for great techniques and ideas!

As always...
take care!
NB