Good evening everybody,
The green bean are growing a treat out in the garden and when I checked them today found that there was a decent amount ready to be picked. I do find it very interesting that I planted the green and yellow beans on the same day and yet there are no yellow beans ready to pick at all.
I have a lot of bean plants out there and I am hoping to get quite a lot from them, in fact, enough to freeze to supply all our beans for the year.
In the past I used to weigh the beans to make many many individual little packages, blanch them and then put them in little bags to freeze. It was hugely labour intensive. Frank made a suggestion this year that I thought was truly brilliant. He said "why don't you just freeze them on a cookie sheet like you do with the berries?" Why not indeed?
So this has now become my new method. After picking the beans I cut off the tops and then dumped them into the sink for a good wash.
After that it was into the pot of boiling water to blanch them. My farm journal says 3 minutes from when the water returns to the boil.
Drain through a colander and then immediately into a bath of ice water.
I again drain them, very thoroughly, and then lay them out on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer. I really try to keep them separate on the cookie sheet so they do not stick together when they freeze.
When they are frozen solid, I package them up in a large zip top bag clearly labelled. I will just keep adding to this bag until it is full and then start another one. Because they were all frozen separately I can just remove the amount I want for a meal from the bag. Simple.
Well that is all for me for tonight. Thanks so much for visiting. Cheers.
The green bean are growing a treat out in the garden and when I checked them today found that there was a decent amount ready to be picked. I do find it very interesting that I planted the green and yellow beans on the same day and yet there are no yellow beans ready to pick at all.
I have a lot of bean plants out there and I am hoping to get quite a lot from them, in fact, enough to freeze to supply all our beans for the year.
In the past I used to weigh the beans to make many many individual little packages, blanch them and then put them in little bags to freeze. It was hugely labour intensive. Frank made a suggestion this year that I thought was truly brilliant. He said "why don't you just freeze them on a cookie sheet like you do with the berries?" Why not indeed?
So this has now become my new method. After picking the beans I cut off the tops and then dumped them into the sink for a good wash.
After that it was into the pot of boiling water to blanch them. My farm journal says 3 minutes from when the water returns to the boil.
Drain through a colander and then immediately into a bath of ice water.
I again drain them, very thoroughly, and then lay them out on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer. I really try to keep them separate on the cookie sheet so they do not stick together when they freeze.
When they are frozen solid, I package them up in a large zip top bag clearly labelled. I will just keep adding to this bag until it is full and then start another one. Because they were all frozen separately I can just remove the amount I want for a meal from the bag. Simple.
Well that is all for me for tonight. Thanks so much for visiting. Cheers.
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