Goodbye Summer. Hello Fall. I love my Local Farmers Market. That being said, I decided I would stock up on the end of the summers beautiful vegetables and store them for use when they are no longer available in the fall and winter.
Fresh picked Baby Pea Pods are given a good wash.
See those beautiful fresh babies!
Shelled and rinsed again.
Into a big pot of boiling water they went to be blanched for 2 minutes. Then submerged into a big bowl of ice water until cool. Lastly I patted them dry on paper towels and sealed them up in my Food Saver.
Now in the dead of winter I can use my garden fresh peas or green beans (I did the same par-boil to them too) and I don't have to go to the freezer section in the store. I've also done the same with the beautiful zucchini and crookneck squash as well. My mother just froze a big batch of fresh green tomatoes and brought me a huge bag full. Yummy, fried green tomatoes will definately warm me up this winter. Thanks mom. I plan on visiting the farmers market and doing the same with the fall and winter vegetables during this up coming season.
Preserving Fresh Summer Vegetables
Garden Peas
Green Beans
Zucchini
Crookneck (yellow) Squash
Rinse off vegetables well in cold water.
Fill a large bowl with ice and water.Set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.
When water comes to a full boil put in vegetables and immediately start your timer.
Peas only take a minute or two, most other vegetables take a full 3 minutes to blanch.
When time is up, immediatelyscoop out the vegetables and plunge into the ice water. This will stop the cooking process and help preserve the color and freshness.
When cooled, spread the vegetables out on a large sheet pan lined with paper towels and dry them off.
At this point, if you have the space in your freezer you can remove the paper towels and flash freeze or IQF (Individually Quick Frozen).
If you have a Food Saver all the better, if not just use a good zip freezer bag. Bag up vegetables in amounts according to your usage preference. Label item and date. Store in freezer for later use.
Linking up with:
I freeze, can and dehydrate every kind of vegetable and fruit in season in the summer and fall. Nothing like going to your own freezer or pantry for supplies.
ReplyDeleteWe freeze a lot of our garden veggies, but never thought to freeze some green tomatoes. Thanks for the idea! I'll be sure to freeze some so that I can enjoy some Fried Green Tomatoes in the dead of winter.
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