Musical Fruit

Beans, beans!
Musical fruit!
The more you eat,
The more you toot!

The green bean harvest is coming in, so it's time to put some up for the winter. I'm not much of a canner, but freezing them is pretty simple. Here's how it goes:

Pick:


That part's pretty obvious. Got two full grocery bags yesterday. Gave away about a third before we started processing.

Wash:


Dirt, bugs, blossom ends, whatever...bye, bye.

Cut:


We cut off both ends, though you really don't need to cut off the pointy non-stem end. Cut large beans into smaller bits. Some people cut them lengthwise (which is to french them—but no, not that kind of frenching.)

As you can see, we're big believers in child labor here at Babilonia Farms.

Blanch:


Now we plunge the raw beans into boiling water for two to three minutes. This arrests the enzymes that drive the ripening process and probably kills any bacteria that might be hanging on.

Icewater:


They're a little hard to see, but those are ice cubes floating in this big pot of water. We'll use it to stop the cooking process after blanching.

Cool:


Like this. Needs to happen for a period of time at least equal to the blanching.

Drain:


Separate the beans from the cooling water.

Bag:


We like the quart Ziplock size. Just about right for a meal.

Label:

Nobody likes a mystery when it comes to frozen foods.

Freeze:


I think we came out at about 10 quarts. A few more and we'll be able to heat the house with natural gas this winter.