Freezing Green Beans

From the garden to the freezer provides great quality

Vegetables begin to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested. If you must store the beans for a while before you freeze them, keep them in a cool place, preferably the refrigerator.

If you have a choice, harvest beans early in the morning, then freeze them as quickly as possible. Two hours from the garden to the freezer is ideal. Vegetables begin to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested. If you must store the beans for a while before you freeze them, keep them in a cool place, preferably the refrigerator.

Some varieties of beans freeze better than others. For example, the Contender variety is early, prolific, and excellent for cooking. However, after it has been frozen or canned, the texture is not as firm as some of the other varieties.

The beans you freeze should be young and tender with crisp firm pods that snap easily. You should discard pods that are wilted, flabby, blemished or decayed.

Sort the beans according to size and maturity. Beans that are about the same size look better and blanch and cook in the same length of time.

Before freezing, wash the beans several times in cold water. While you are washing the beans, remove those which are bruised or decayed. After washing, remove the ends and snap or cut the pods into one or two inch pieces.

Blanching is the next step. Blanching is the heating of the beans before they are frozen. To blanch, put about one pound of beans, which measures out to three or four cups in a blanching basket, colander, wire basket, or cheesecloth sack.

Drop the beans into a gallon of boiling water and cover the container. When the water returns to a boil, begin counting time and blanch for three minutes.

At the end of the blanching time, cool the beans in ice water or cold running water to stop the cooking process. It takes about as long to cool the beans as it does to blanch them. When the beans are cool, drain off the water.

Package the beans in moisture vapor-proof freezer bags or containers. Pack the beans tightly, and leave about one-half inch at the top of the package. If you use plastic bags, press the bags from the bottom to get out as much of the air as possible.

You may want to use a cardboard cover box to protect the bags from getting punctured and to make them stack easier in the freezer. Be sure you label the packages so that you know what is in them and when it was frozen. Freeze the beans immediately at zero degrees or colder. Do not put more food in the freezer than will freeze in 24 hours, most home freezers can freeze two to three pounds of food per cubic foot of freezer

For more information on freezing green beans contact your local County Extension Office.