Go green!

...beans that is.

Although the title could be referring to my alma mater...

Not today. Today it's about beans.

The one vegetable that I've consistently had success with in my garden is green beans. I've ordered "Provider" bush beans from seed companies the last few years, and they sure do well. This year I planted them in stages, doing a few rows one day then another few rows a couple weeks later. Then at the end of July, when I knew my peas were done and my carrots hadn't filled in their space, I planted the rest of my bean seeds -- including those from a 2-year-old packet. They ALL came up! And they ALL got blossoms! Then one day last week I went out to water them and realized they ALL had tons of beans on them already!! My biggest problem with green beans is not harvesting them quickly enough, and letting them get too big and over-ripe. I was NOT going to let that happen this time.

So I took my bowl and my daughter outside and started picking.


Then we came in and I started snipping. I just used my hands (if I'd had a bigger batch I probably would have used a knife), and snipped off the two ends of each bean and then broke the bean into 2-3 pieces. Pretty soon Abby decided she wanted to sit on the couch with me. Then she decided she wanted to "help" me.

 

I'm glad she likes them. :) Although with only 4 teeth it took her awhile to eat...

Then I prepped the beans for freezing. I "blanched" them -- put in boiling water for 3 minutes, then put them in ice water in the sink for 3 minutes.




This process essentially starts the beans cooking, but then the cold water shocks the enzymes or whatever to stop cooking, so they will stay fresh in the freezer.


And voila! A bag of frozen green beans to cook and eat sometime this winter. I don't have much room in our little freezer above the fridge to do much of any true "freezer cooking", but this is something that will fit! :)

Do you can or freeze things from your summer garden to eat throughout the winter?