Freezing Garden Vegetables
Vegetable gardeners grow more food than they can eat. Freezing garden fresh produce helps you get the most of your garden. It reduces waste and helps reduce your food costs.
The proper way to freeze most fruits and vegetables is to blanch them. Food can either be water blanched or steam blanched. Both methods are equally effective in keeping bacteria out of your foods, if done properly. Water blanching requires cooking vegetables in boiling water for a specific length of time, which varies depending on what type of garden produce you are freezing. Steam blanching keeps the food out of the water, so more of the nutrients are retained.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation provides blanching and freezing guidelines for a variety of fruits and vegetables. These guidelines are for water blanching. If you are steam blanching, double the recommended time.
It is necessary to quickly cool down the fruit and vegetables after blanching. An ice water bath is the quickest way to do this. Drop the vegetables directly from the blanching into ice water and cool them down. Then drain them and store in a freezer safe container or bag and freeze immediately.
