Women's Home Activities

If you have been reading my posts lately you have seen that there have been quite a few dealing with home canning. Well there is a reason for that. Mainly because that is how I have been spending a good amount of time lately. The whole month of August was pretty much devoted to canning and preserving fresh food we gathered from our garden. (You may have noticed in my archives the August, 2009 is missing and now you know why)

Today I wanted to give you my insights on Preserving Fresh Green Beans the Easy Way. I have found the most trouble-free approach of preserving green beans is the freezing method. There are a lot of proponents for canning green beans out there and I can’t say that I disagree with them. Canning green beans is a wonderful way to preserve the freshness and taste of this veggie. I just chose freezing them because it is so simple to do.

On With the Story of Preserving Fresh Green Beans

The pole beans in our garden just kept on producing this year. There we were me, hubby and my father-in-law scouring the two rows we had planted and picking like crazy. We would find a few beans, lift a vine and wham-the mother lode would hit.

By the time we got through we had filled 2 grocery bags each. I am sure that would have equaled a bushel full if I had had a bushel basket to fill. The question then was what are we going to do with all of these luscious beans? The answer was simple really…we would “put them up”.

What does “Putting Up” mean?

Well for those of you that haven’t discovered the joys of home canning just yet, “putting up” is a means of canning and preserving fresh foods. It is what country folk or those who have been doing this a while call it.

With all these fresh green beans on hand I had to do something with them so they wouldn’t go to waste. Luckily for me, my mother-in-law was there and we came up with a plan. We decided that freezing the fresh green beans would be the easiest way to put them up since there were so many to do. Besides we knew from last year’s crop that this is a great approach to preserve the freshness of the green beans and that we would enjoy them throughout the coming fall and winter.

Steps to Freezing Fresh Green Beans

First you must prepare the green beans before you can process them. You’ve got to rinse the beans when you bring them in from the garden.

Then the fun begins (she says in jest) – snapping the beans. Make sure you only use beans that are fresh and not dried out looking. Snap the ends off the beans and de-string them as you go along snapping them in 3-4 pieces. Some of the beans also make great “shellys”. This is when you open the beans and just take out the pod inside. We like having both but you decide for yourself.

I’ll have to admit this takes up a good deal of the time. Like I said before I was sure glad that my mother-in-law was there to help or I would probably still be working on those beans. It took about an hour or so for each of us to fill a colander worth of beans. In the meantime we got to catch up on all the family news and just enjoy the bonding time with this home activity.

Now the first batch was ready for the easy part – blanching the beans. I’ve got a great Multi-Purpose Stockpot that is just perfect for this job. This pot has a steamer attachment that is great for blanching fresh food. I heat enough water in the base of the pot; about 2/3 full. Let it come to a boil.  Fill the steamer with your freshly snapped beans. Set the bean filled steamer into the pot of boiling water. Cover the beans. Set your timer for seven minutes. I have found this amount of time works well for me. Others blanch their beans a little less. You can use a canning guide if you prefer.

While the beans are blanching you get ready for the next step – cold water bath. Take one side of your sink and fill it about half full with cold tap water. Add ice to this water, about 2-3 trays will do. When the timer goes off, drain your beans with the steamer back into the stock pot. (This water can be used again for the next batch of beans but you may need to add a little more and bring it back to a boil) Then plunge your blanched beans into the cold ice water bath. Leave them for about the same amount of time that you blanched them. This will stop the cooking process.

Yay! You’ve made it to the final step – packing your green beans. Your beans are now cooled down and you need to get them to the freezer as soon as possible. Drain the green beans well. I use a neat scoop strainer that my mother-in-law picked up for us to use. I can’t thank her enough for this handy tool. It works perfectly for all of our freezing projects.

Now it is time to bag the beans.  Vacuum Seal bagging is the best way to preserve the freshness of your beans. You may also use Ziploc bags to pack your green beans but make sure you choose the freezer type bags as they are thicker and will reduce the chance of freezer burn. It is also a little harder to get the air out of these bags as apposed to the vacuum sealer. I have used both and they work well.

Make sure you label your bags with the date before filling them. If you are using the Ziploc bags only fill the bag to the “Ziploc label”. Zip the bag most of the way after filling. Squeeze as much air out as possible flattening the beans in the bag as you go along, then finish zipping the bag. (They stack much better in your freezer if they are flatten out)

Typically for the size of your steamer pot will determine the amount of bags you will be using. For the demonstration I was referring to a filled steamer pot usually yields 4-5 quart bags of beans or 2-3 gallon bags of green beans. We had a lot of beans to freeze and chose both size bags in case we were cooking for a big crowd (gallon) or just a couple of people (quart).

Viola! You have now finished Preserving Green Beans the Easy Way. The final step is to get the green beans in the freezer. Now you will be able to enjoy the fresh taste of your green beans long after the season ends.

Your choice of how to use these yummy preserved green beans is totally up to you. Let you imagination go. Look for recipes you know your family will enjoy. Check back with me, I just might have one for you! Until then, Happy Canning and Preserving. Gotta run, I hear the apples and pears calling my name to be picked and preserved too.