Blanching

Yesterday, neighbor and friend Yogita (Hi, Yogi!) helped me harvest a TON of green beans.  After I foisted half of them off on her, I was left with a half-ton for our household. Since we are still eating the TON of green beans BFF Laura (Hi, Laura!) helped me pick on Saturday, this batch had to be preserved. But how?

Freezing!  While this would have been a good opportunity to can some beans, I decided to go with the freezing option as it is easier and quicker.  Time is of the essence when you are working with just-picked produce--you want to process it as quickly as possible to retain the freshness. 

Step One: Wash and prepare the beans. Throw the ends in the old-ice-cream-container-turned-compost-bin-storage.  Boil a pot of water and prepare an ice bath.  Have tongs and freezer bags handy.  Stand in awe of the giant zucchini in the background.

Step Two:  Place green beans in the boiling water. Leave them in there for a minute or two, but no longer. You do not want the beans to cook all the way, just to get really hot really fast.

Step Three: Remove the beans from the boiling water and immediately place them in the ice bath. The point of this is to stop the cooking process.  Something magical AND scientific happens here, but I'm not sure what it is because I am neither a magician nor a scientist. I just know that this is an important step and you can't skip it.

Yes, the beans are cooling in the bottom of a salad spinner. It was already used, and I didn't want to dirty up another pot/bowl. That's just how I roll.

Step Four:  Place the cooled beans in a freezer bag, squeeze out all the air, and throw them in the freezer. 

Done! Green beans are preserved, and we'll be enjoying these delicious bits of summer sometime in January or February.  That's usually when I need summer the most.

Manda Monday--Canning planning

A few weeks ago, I walked into a Master Gardener Q&A session as folks were discussing tomato plants.  People were nodding in agreement when the Master Gardener said "Two tomato plants is enough, there's really no need to plant more than that."


And from the back of the room in that shrill voice of hers...okay, mine...I screeched, "ONLY TWO? BUT I PLANTED TWELVE!"

The Master Gardener and her small but experienced gardener audience chuckled at my tomato enthusiasm, since clearly this newbie got a little out of control when purchasing her seedlings.

Well, I beg to differ. Having twelve tomato plants is going to be totally awesome, especially since I plan on canning a lot of the fruit. 

Yep, that's right, I'm going old school. Actually, canning is new again.  As food costs rise, home canning is a great way to save money, especially if you grew the food yourself. 

As I am, with my TWELVE TOMATO PLANTS.

There are plenty of books and kits to help you get started.  The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving has been on my nightstand for a few days now, and I'm getting my materials ready.  I have a pressure cooker (Thanks, Uncle Rich!), funnel, jar lifter and an assortment of jars, lids and bands.

I hope to have enough tomatoes for a few jars each of pasta sauce, crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes.  Of course, more would be better.  In my wildest dreams, I'll be up day and night for two straight weekends as I can can can thousands of beautiful red tomatoes. 

In addition to the Complete Book of Home Preserving, I have an older Ball Blue Book for canning from BFF Laura that's going to come in handy, as well as The Encyclopedia of Homemade Preserves. Online, I'm looking at the Ball Canning website and the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Now, all I need is for my 100+ green tomatoes out there to ripen all within two weeks of each other.

Note to the crowd at the Master Gardener Q&A session:  Next year, I'm planning for TWENTY tomato plants. Minimum.  So there!