Fresh Picks of the Day - July 24, 2013 and How to Freeze Green Beans

Today was another great day of veggies!  I picked green beans and more pea pods (I only have pictures of the green beans).  Green Beans are one of my favorite vegetables.

 To pick the green beans you have to flip the plants around and search for them.  It is amazing how you can find more when you are looking from a different angle.

We pick them when they petite.  My mom likes them to be long, skinny, beans.

 We will eat some fresh, but we end up freezing a lot to enjoy throughout the winter.

How to Freeze Green Beans

Cut the ends off.  We leave them nice and long, but if you like them little and short, you could cut them in half.

Wash the green beans.

You could wash them and then cut them.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  I use a smaller pot because I don't like waiting for a large pot to come to a boil, and then I do a bunch of smaller batches, but if you want to do a larger pot and do one big batch, you could that.

Meanwhile, get a bowl of ice cold water.

When the water is boiling, place some green beans in the pot.  You don't need to leave them in there too long... about 2-3 minuets, until the green beans turn bright green.

Once the green beans are bright green, take them from the pot of hot water straight the bowl of ice cold water.  Leave them in the water for a few minuets, long enough for them to cool down.

If you do a bunch of smaller batches, you will want to make sure the pot is back to a boil before you do the next batch.  Also, you will probably want to add more ice to the cold water in between batches.

(This isn't a good picture, but I don't think these bags of green beans wanted their picture taken.)

Place the cooled green beans in labeled freezer bags.  Fill them however full you want them.  Place the bags in the freezer laying down.  That way they freeze flatter and then you can reposition them.

We do a bunch of batches of freezing throughout the summer.  We save up a couple days' picks and then freeze them.