Freezing Green Beans

We have green beans coming out our ears.  After sharing them with lots of neighbors and eating them multiple times a week, I decided it was time to save some for later. Since I don't have a pressure canner, and prefer the freshest produce possible, freezing was the best option.

Obviously, the first step is to wash and trim your green beans. 

Then you need to blanch them in boiling water. Most sources say 3 minutes is enough to stop harmful enzymes that would alter them during the freezing process.

Next step is an ice bath to stop the cooking process and keep them nice and fresh. I then laid them out to dry on a towel.

Flash freezing on a cookie sheet helps the beans freeze separately instead of all stuck together.

Lastly, I put them in smaller portions and sealed them as tight as I could. This may seem like a lot of steps, but it's worth the fresh garden produce put away for another day!

92 Ears of Corn

Yesterday was corn pickin' day.

It was high time to get it done. In fact, I almost missed the window due to ignorance. This is the first time I have grown corn, and I didn't know there is only a short window of about 10 days when the corn is perfect for picking!

On August 7th we picked our first six ears and it seemed a little immature so we waited a little longer. Then on August 17th we picked some and a few of them seemed almost chewy, which means they had dried out! The best rule of thumb I have found it to pick corn when the silk on top is still green and fresh, and not to wait too long after it turns brown.

So yesterday I rallied the troops and we went out to the garden and picked every ear we could find.... all 69 of them! Combined with earlier pickings our yield was a whopping 92 ears! This amazes me, not only because of the large quantity, but because Mike made a spreadsheet with yield calculations when we planned our garden, and we thought we'd get about 90 ears of corn. Pretty close, eh?

 

My little helping hands...

All loaded up!

I spent the afternoon shucking on the front porch, which was actually very enjoyable now that the temps are not quite so hot and I have pretty plants to look at.

After a four minute dip in boiling water (called blanching to destroy the enzymes before freezing), the cobs were ready for cutting.
 

I read about this awesome idea for cutting corn off the cob--use a bundt pan! It worked beautifully! I just used a sharp knife and spun the pan as I went. 

It seems crazy that 69 ears of corn only filled up 5 gallon bags, but it also filled up two large trash bags with husks and cobs!

I am excited to have fresh sweet corn for the winter and I'm already salivating over recipes like corn chowder and chicken barley chili (with corn). Luckily I saved a few cobs in the fridge to enjoy one last time for dinner... there's nothing like fresh corn on the cob!