Garden Abundance - Putting Up Green Beans

Plant a packet of green bean seeds in your vegetable garden and pretty soon you'll have more green beans that you can imagine doing anything with. I absolutely love home canned green beans which I contend make the absoluate  best green bean casserole. Unfortanately, I haven't gotten around to getting a pressure canner and while my mom and grandma have been water bath canning beans for years and years will not ill effects, I am squeamish about taking that risk myself.

Fortanately for me, freezing green beans is extremely easy to do. The act of processing the bean and preparing for preserving can be a little time consuming, but it does provide a good excuse to hide out inside watching a cheesy movie while cutting up your beans!

 

As you can see, I started with a big flat of green beans. One frugal tip for gardeners... save all those containers your plants come in from the greenhouse. The double as great storage when harvesting your garden! I love the flower flats because their builtin holds make it extremely easy to rinse off your veggies with the garden hose outside and let all the water drain out.

 

Once picked, the beans need to be processed. I remember growing up my brother and I would help our mom and grandma "snap" off the ends of beans with our fingers. These days, I use a paring knife to cut off the ends and cut the beans into smaller pieces. I cut mine directly into a strainer which makes it easy to rise the beans after cutting.

 

Fill a large pot with water and bring to boiling on the stove. Drop in your beans in small batches and allow to blanch in the water for about 3 minutes. Fill a clean sink bason with cold water. Using a slotted spoon, transfer your beans from the boiling water to your cold water to stop the cooking. I have a large, slighly curved metal fryer scoop that I think works perfectly for this purpose - allowing you to scoop up lots of beans at once. Repeat until all of the beans are blanched. You will likely need to add more cold water (or a bit of ice) to your cold water bath as you go. 

 

Transfer your beans to a towel covered cookie sheet one layer thick to allow to dry fully. This is an important step - if you don't do this you'll get a big frozen clump of beans. Transfer your beans to good quality freezer bags and place in your freezer.

 

Pull your beans out of the freezer any time you need a quick side dish or to add to soups and casseoles.