It’s the bean time of year here! We delayed our two week working vacation due to sick children, and were rewarded at the farmers market this morning. $12 for about 15 lbs of beans! (or about 1/3 of a bushel) One of our two favorite farmers, the one guy who grows everything for himself, had a LOT of beans and cut us a deal. Happily, as the yard long noodle beans I was expecting to be our bean supply this year simply did not grow beans, I came home and froze ’em up!
Here’s the blow by blow.
1) Wash & trim beans (trimming means to take off the ends, just a tich) – I dump ’em in the sink & run cold water into them until they are all floating. I then pull out any junk that arrived with them – leaves, grass, etc.
2) Cut beans – I like mine about an inch or slightly less in lenght.
3) Blanch beans – Find a big pot & pre-cook ’em for 3 minutes in a rolling boil
4) Cool beans – I run cold water thru them in the sink – it was pretty self explainatory and I didn’t take a picture. This step is important because it stops the cooking process and you end up with crunchy beans when you finish cooking. If you don’t? Mush…
5) Bag beans – I use zip-loc bags and put up 2 cups into each small bag. These small bags then went, 3-4 each, into gallon bags, so they don’t freezer burn. Essentially, they’re double wrapped.
6) Freeze beans – Find a spot in the freezer & walk away until you need ’em! (I like to leave them flat while they’re freezing, so they become more like a sheet of paper to move later).
It’s really simple, and gives you a beautiful product to pull out of the freezer all year long. Good freezing! Corn when we get back!