It’s mid-August and the sun has finally come out here in Oregon and my garden is going crazy!  I thought it would be helpful to show you how to preserve some common food items from the garden in case your garden is producing like mine is.  We’ll start with green beans since I have those in abundance right now.

There are a couple ways to preserve green beans– canning or freezing.  I have canned green beans before and didn’t really care for the results.  Plus, it requires more prep work and more supplies that you probably wouldn’t have in your kitchen normally like a pressure canner.  So we’re going to talk about how to freeze green beans.  I think the flavor is better and the process is super easy and quick and painless.  And when you pull fresh green beans out of the freezer in the winter months, saute them in a little bacon grease (isn’t everything better with bacon?) with some garlic and onions and…yummy!  You’ll thank me later!  

So here we go:

First, pick your beans...or if you don't have a garden, buy some from your local farmers market.

Next, rinse them under cool water.

Cut off the stringy little ends into whatever length of beans you prefer.

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Add beans and return to a rolling boil. Boil 3 minutes.

Next, remove beans from hot water and put into a bowl of ice water for 3 minutes.

Put into your containers and pop into the freezer.

You can use whatever containers that you want for freezing.  Some people use Ziploc freezer bags, but I used the Ziploc containers that I got for free at Safeway a while back with coupons.  You can put them in big batches, but I prefer to do a containers worth of about what our family would eat in one meal.  Your green beans will stay good in the freezer for 12-18 months.

*Kitchen tip– When freezing food in containers, use a dry erase pen to label what the item is and/or the date made.  That way after you use it, you can just wipe the marker off and re-use the lid.  Just make sure you wipe before washing in the dishwasher…otherwise it will be on there permanently!

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