how to freeze fresh green beans!

hello, tend friends! this morning i have been busily working around the farm with a renewed sense of peace & an abundance of energy! 

i thought i would stop by this morning & share our favorite (& quickest!) way to preserve green beans from the garden. on tuesday, abby shared some of her favorite ways to prepare the sometimes overwhelming haul from the garden & also asked for favorite ways to preserve green beans.

our trick is freezing!

when we purchased the farm, my parents gifted us a bit of money to purchase a freezer chest. we are so thankful they did! we have already filled it up with homemade chicken stock, pesto, tomato sauce, tomato soup, bell peppers, corn on the cob, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries & so much more!

we also added four gallons of green beans to the freezer. luke harvested the last of our green beans earlier last week (a wonderful surprise given we rarely have green beans this late in the summer season!) & we were very surprised to fill four baskets of those delicious beans. instead of crossing our fingers in hopes that we would eat that many throughout the next handful of weeks, we set aside a little over an hour & processed our garden bounty!

how to freeze green beans:

1. depending on the size of your harvest, fill an appropriately-sized pot with water & bring to a boil.

2. while you are waiting for your water to boil, wash all of your green beans thoroughly. chop off the end where the green bean was attached to the plant. 

3. once your water is boiling & all of your beans are cleaned & chopped, add them to the pot of boiling water. depending on the amount of beans you have, keep them in the water for 3-5 minutes. you will know the beans are ready once they turn a bright green color but remain fairly hard instead of limp. 

4. once your beans have finished boiling, place them in a bowl of freezing water until the green beans have fully cooled.

5. transfer your beans to plastic freezer bags. (tip: if you have a bit of extra time, you can place them on a cookie sheet & freeze before placing them in the bag to prevent the beans from sticking to each other.)

don't forget to label your bag!

cook & enjoy during the winter! we love seasoning our green beans in a bit of bacon drippings with salt & pepper.

- natalie

ideas for tomatoes

i have been a stranger around these parts for over a month now. that doesn't mean the happenings around the farm have slowed down. not one bit, really. the work is never ending around here, but it brings about a feeling of satisfaction that can't be matched. there's always a project to complete, an animal in need of care, a garden to weed, produce to harvest & a bounty of delicious summer goodies to put up. we are thankful for this work & this season of abundance! 

abundance is indeed the word to describe this time of year. every day we come in from the garden with a basket of tomatoes, peppers, basil & cucumbers. i have pickled, canned, preserved & frozen baskets of deliciously ripe produce this summer. 

this summer i have also found two new, family-approved ways to enjoy these favorites in our garden. 

inspired by a flurry of women on social media, i tried that one pot pasta that so many have talked about. i was a bit hesitant at first to serve this up at dinnertime for fear of soggy noodles & flavorless sauce, but i can now confidently share that it was indeed a hit. that martha is a genius!  we mixed some garden tomatoes, purple onion, basil & garlic in with the noodles. easy cooking, easy clean-up & a delicious dinner. win, win, win!

i also tried my hand at roasting tomatoes. i chopped up tomatoes skin & all, both small & large, & placed them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. i spread a bit of olive oil on the top & then added a mix of salt, pepper, fresh rosemary & whole cloves of garlic. the small tomatoes roasted for about 3 hours at 225 degrees in the oven. the larger tomatoes took about 4 hours. 

we have enjoyed these slow-roasted tomatoes on salads, in leftover pasta & as a snack. i froze the leftovers on a cookie sheet & placed them in a freezer bag for the winter. just another way to enjoy this season of abundance during the cold winter months!

what are some new ways you have found to preserve the summer harvest? please share!

pickling

  

 A recent rainy day presented the perfect opportunity to finally do some pickling. I’m growing Boston Pickling cukes this year, just for this reason, and they have been producing pretty well. I’ve been stalling on this project for a while. Being my first official foray into canning of any sort, I admit I felt a tiny bit intimidated. The worst that could happen though, is I would lose a few pounds of cucumbers. So!

 

 I followed the garlic dill pickles recipe from Marisa McClellan’s site, Food In Jars. This is a quick pickle (she recommends letting them sit 2-4 days before eating), so you won’t have to wait for weeks to try them. The only modification I made was I added 1/2 tsp coriander seed to each jar. I also followed her guide for salt substitution, and used the sea salt I had on hand in place of pickling salt.

 These were pretty simple to put together, just as I was assured they would be. The hardest part was just waiting for the water to boil to sterilize my jars, and then again for the water bath.  I realized halfway through sterilization, that I shouldn’t be using the canning pot on a glass cook top (indicated on the pot, and in part, because the base of the pot is not flat), so we moved outside onto a propane camp stove for the water bath. The water bath process can be skipped if one wants to keep their pickles in the fridge, but I’d rather have the fridge space.

 I waited about 36 hours to pop open the first jar. And yes, this is a great pickle! Classic dill pickle flavor, with quite a kick of heat. If you like it spicy, I think Marisa hit it just right (I think my 1/4 teaspoons were overflowing a little). If spicy is not so much your thing, you may want to tone it down on the chili flakes. I noticed that as soon as I finished making these, I felt excited about sharing them. I especially can’t wait to give some to my pickle loving sister.

I can see how people get really into canning. It’s a fun process, and the results are so satisfying. I am already looking forward to more. Next up? Maybe some tomato jam.