Container Gardens
Freezing Garden String Beans
It seems like every time I turn around I have more green beans to pick. Hidden under the shade of their large leaves, my beans are ready for picking, eating and storing.
I prefer the fresh taste and flavor of beans rather than the texture and taste that occurs once beans are pressure cooked and canned. So, after washing and snapping my beans I prepare them for freezing – a great way to keep that fresh taste and texture for my winter meals.
Freezing beans is actually a simple process. Beans must be blanched before they are frozen, as blanching kills the growth enzymes in the recently picked beans. To blanch my string beans I first boil a pot of hot water and then submerge my beans into the water using a metal strainer. Once the beans take on a darker, more translucent look (after about 4 or 5 minutes) I pull my strainer out of the water and quickly dip them into a cold water bath. This quick cooling method keeps them from continuing to cook after they have been removed from the hot water.
Now that my beans are blanched and cooled, I’ll let them air dry before putting them in heavy duty freezer bags and placing them into the freezer.
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July 18th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
all my freezing and canning books burned up in a house fire,I went to freeze some beans given me and didn’t have a clue where to start.I am a fairly new computer user so it certainly was a pleasant surprise when the first recipe I found was this one.Just what I was looking for.I have printed a copy and will now start my own freezing book.