GARDEN + GARDENING + GARDEN DESIGN + GARDENING TIPS & ADVICE

Freezing is a great way to preserve your summer harvest for those cold, long winter months. Vegetables in particular freeze well and can retain a fresh flavor if stored properly.

To freeze your vegetables you must first “blanch” or “scald” the vegetables in boiling water. By dunking your vegetables in hot boiling water, you kill the ripening enzymes in the produce allowing the vegetables to preserve at their current size and flavor. To blanch your vegetables, place them in a strainer and lower them into a pot of boiling water. Do not leave your produce in the water too long – you don’t want to start cooking them, you only want to heat them up quickly and then cool them.

Once your vegetables take on a shiny, transluscent appearance quickly take them out of the hot water and dip them in a tub or pot of cold water. Leave them in the cold water until they have sufficiently cooled. Place the vegetables in air-tight containers and then place them into the freezer.

• Freezing Garden String Beans
• Early Spring Vegetable Gardening-You Can Do It Too
• Tips For Canning Your Harvest

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Gardening General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.