CREATING A SIMPLER LIFE OFF GRID
  • Home/About
    • MINIMIZING >
      • Home Size
      • Room by Room
      • Get Organized
      • Household Waste
    • MINIMIZE DEBT, MAXIMIZE SAVINGS >
      • Bills & Other Debt
      • Saving Money
      • Shopping Tips
      • Affordable Fun
    • BACKYARD CHICKENS >
      • The Coop
      • The Chickens
      • Feeding the Chickens
      • Fresh Eggs
    • HOME GARDENING >
      • Building the Garden
      • What We Grow
      • Seeds, Weeds, & More
      • Preservation & Storage
    • DO-IT-YOURSELF >
      • Health & Wellness
      • Simple Cleaning & Tips
      • Crafts & More!
      • Printables
    • CROCHET >
      • IDEAS & MORE
      • VIDEO TUTORIALS
    • Blog
  • HOMESTEAD
    • The 5 Year Plan PLUS! >
      • 2017
      • 2018
      • 2019
      • 2020
      • 2021
      • 2022
    • WHY AN EARTH SHELTERED HOUSE?
    • OFF GRID TINY TRAILER
    • BUILD VIDEOS IN ORDER
    • HOMESTEAD MACHINERY >
      • GENERATORS
      • KUBOTA TRACTOR
      • ATV'S & UTV'S
      • WOOD CHIPPER
      • CHAINSAWS
      • LOG SPLITTER
      • POWER TOOLS
      • SNOWMOBILES
      • AUTOMOBILES
    • BUDGETING THE BUILD
    • SUSTAINABILITY >
      • WATER
      • FOOD
      • SHELTER
      • ENERGY >
        • SOLAR POWER
    • The Adirondacks >
      • Wildlife & Nature
      • Insects & Bugs
      • Things to Do
      • Water Fun
    • ADIRONDACK CRAFTS
  • VLOG
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021

Blog

A little bit of anything and everything that's part of
​creating, enjoying, and living a simpler life!
Picture
http://www.creatingasimplerlife.com

FREEZING STRING BEANS FOR THE WINTER

8/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I love eating my own home grown string beans over the winter.  The fact that they will taste good months from now is because of how they are prepared and stored. Today I am going to share with you how I prepared and saved 7.73 pounds of string beans in under 2 hours by myself!

In my earlier post  "It's Not Too Late To Grow Beans" I shared with you how easy string beans are to grow. Those easy string beans are readily producing now and over the last three days I have filled the three gallon bags you see in the photo above (And yes, they really did total 7.73 lbs!).

My method of freezing them for the winter is very simple, but believe it or not it took me a few years to get it right! 
FIRST THINGS FIRST - PREPPING THE BEANS
Last night while watching TV with my husband I sat at the table and I prepared all the beans by simply cutting the ends off and putting them back in the bag.  At the same time I also pulled out any unwanted leaves and flowers and cut the larger beans in half.    When all was said and done the beans weighed 6.94 pounds.
Picture
Picture
This morning it took me about an hour from beginning to end (including clean-up) to finish the beans for freezing.  In the end I had 9 sandwich baggies each weighing about .77 lbs (three quarters of a pound).
BLANCHING AND FREEZING THE BEANS
Supplies:
  • String Beans (cut and cleaned)
  • Water
  • Blanching Pot with Strainer and Lid
  • Slotted Spoon
  • Colander
  • Large Bowl
  • Ice
  • Tray or Cookie Sheet
  • Paper Towels
  • Sandwich Bags
  • Gallon Zip-lock Freezer Bags
Picture
Picture
Procedure:
  • Add enough water to the pot to cover all the string beans you are putting in.  I actually used a lot of water because I did one entire gallon bag at a time. 
  • Bring the water to a boil.
  • Add the string beans and use the spoon to make sure they are all submerged.
  • Cover the pot and set the timer for 3.5 minutes.
  • When time is up, very slowly remove the basket strainer from the pot and pour the string beans into the colander in the cold water bath, again, using the spoon to make sure they are all submerged.
  • Transfer the cooled beans to the paper towels on the tray and pat dry with additional paper towels.
  • Fill sandwich bags with string beans and set aside (leave open until you are completely done)
  • Continue to blanch additional bags of beans if you have them.
Picture
Boil Water
Picture
Blanch Beans 3.5 Minutes
Picture
Cold Water Bath
Picture
Pat Dry
  • When all beans have been blanched and put into sandwich bags, then get as much air out of the bags as possible and close them securely.
  • Put a maximum of 4-5 of the full sandwich bags into a one gallon zip-lock freezer bag and seal.
  • Label it with the year and store it in your freezer until you are ready to use it!  Remove sandwich bags as needed and re-seal the zip-lock bag.
Picture
Put in Sandwich Bags
Picture
Put 4-5 Sandwich Bags in Gallon Freezer Bag
Some questions you may have:
  • I started using the sandwich bags last year because each bag holds just enough for two to three people for dinner.  If I need more than that I just use a second one.  For us this prevents waste and makes it easier to just grab a bag as needed.  
  • I use non-freezer sandwich bags because the beans are actually double bagged.  The sandwich bags are stored in a freezer bag so there was no reason to waste money by using two freezer bags.
  • You can use any large pot, and having a strainer basket in the pot is not really necessary.  I used to just put the beans directly in the pot and take them out with a strainer.  It just takes a little longer to do it that way.  The set I have is actually made for blanching, relatively inexpensive,  and works extremely well.  As much as it makes the process so much easier, it is absolutely not necessary to have in order to blanch.
  • I know some people claim that blanching is a waste of time and simply just freeze the beans.  That is fine if that's what you want to do.  I personally have tried it both ways and I can honestly say that in my opinion the blanched beans taste fresh even after being in the freezer for several months.  I cannot however say the same for the beans that were simply frozen as is.  

Please let me know if you have any additional questions about freezing string beans! 
Click on the picture below or the link to check out the Graniteware Blanching Pot I used! (affiliate link)
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Hi there! I'm Kathie, the author behind Creating A Simpler Life blog. I'm excited to share our longterm projects (and planning) toward building our future retirement homestead in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. In the meantime I will be sharing all the other little things we do that are part of creating our simpler life!
    Creating a Simpler Life

    RSS Feed

    Visit Creating A Simpler Life's profile on Pinterest.

    Categories

    All
    Adirondack Crafts
    Chickens
    Conservation
    Crochet
    Do It Yourself
    Energy Savings
    Essential-oils
    Essential-oils
    Food-storage-preservation
    Food-storage-preservation
    Gardening
    Health
    Health-wellness
    Health-wellness
    Homemade-remedies
    Homemade-remedies
    Homesteading
    Homesteading Dreams
    Inexpensive Fun
    Minimizing
    Organization
    Products We Sell
    Recipes
    Recycling
    Saving-money
    Saving-money
    Shopping
    Wedding & Shower DIY

    Archives

    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

mrandmrscorbi@gmail.com
Contact Us - Privacy Policy - Disclaimer
Copyright 2022©Creating A Simpler Life, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
  • Home/About
    • MINIMIZING >
      • Home Size
      • Room by Room
      • Get Organized
      • Household Waste
    • MINIMIZE DEBT, MAXIMIZE SAVINGS >
      • Bills & Other Debt
      • Saving Money
      • Shopping Tips
      • Affordable Fun
    • BACKYARD CHICKENS >
      • The Coop
      • The Chickens
      • Feeding the Chickens
      • Fresh Eggs
    • HOME GARDENING >
      • Building the Garden
      • What We Grow
      • Seeds, Weeds, & More
      • Preservation & Storage
    • DO-IT-YOURSELF >
      • Health & Wellness
      • Simple Cleaning & Tips
      • Crafts & More!
      • Printables
    • CROCHET >
      • IDEAS & MORE
      • VIDEO TUTORIALS
    • Blog
  • HOMESTEAD
    • The 5 Year Plan PLUS! >
      • 2017
      • 2018
      • 2019
      • 2020
      • 2021
      • 2022
    • WHY AN EARTH SHELTERED HOUSE?
    • OFF GRID TINY TRAILER
    • BUILD VIDEOS IN ORDER
    • HOMESTEAD MACHINERY >
      • GENERATORS
      • KUBOTA TRACTOR
      • ATV'S & UTV'S
      • WOOD CHIPPER
      • CHAINSAWS
      • LOG SPLITTER
      • POWER TOOLS
      • SNOWMOBILES
      • AUTOMOBILES
    • BUDGETING THE BUILD
    • SUSTAINABILITY >
      • WATER
      • FOOD
      • SHELTER
      • ENERGY >
        • SOLAR POWER
    • The Adirondacks >
      • Wildlife & Nature
      • Insects & Bugs
      • Things to Do
      • Water Fun
    • ADIRONDACK CRAFTS
  • VLOG
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021