Putting It Up! - Freezing

When I first decided to be a stay at home farm wife, this year, the obvious thought for me was “I need to have a big vegetable garden and try to put some veggies away for winter”. Well, a large garden I had!  After the initial “Wow! That radish was amazing!” and the “These peas are so succulent and delicious” came the “Oh my God… what am I going to do with all this?”

So we ate them fresh; which really is the best way to enjoy and relish the terrific flavor of home grown vegetables. Then, when the produce started coming in by the laundry baskets full (over 50 lbs of green and yellow beans picked one morning) I decided it was time to “put it up”. That was when I started to freeze. Now, not having done frozen vegetables for a number of years I refreshed my memory by going to a wonderful website, which was my bible this summer, called www.pickyourown.org.

I found out that it is necessary to blanch; immerse them in boiling water for a certain amount of time prior to an ice bath.  This is done in order to kill bacteria and stop the enzymes that deteriorate your veggies while in the freezer.

So I started freezing. And it kept on, and on, and on… as each new product ripened and came through the door. Eventually I gave some away to family, then friends, then complete strangers! But on the bright side, my freezer is full and I have enough frozen to last our family for the year. So it was all worth it!

Then I moved into pickling, fermenting, canning and lastly cold storage. But that is the topic of another article!

Blanching times for common vegetables:

• Beans (yellow and green), 3 minutes
• Carrots (sliced), 2 min
• Peas (shelled or edible podded), 2 minutes
• Summer Squash, 3 min
• Cauliflower, 3 min  
• Broccoli, 2 minutes
• Corn, 4-6 minutes  
• Peppers (bell or hot), no blanching necessary
• Beets, pressure can 10 to 15 min 

Originally published in The Planterbox October 2012 issue.