Blanching and Freezing

I have been busy getting our school year going while trying to put as much up for winter as I can. One of my favourite methods of preservation is freezing. Unlike canning, freezing fruits and veggies does not detract from the foods original form. You don't need copious amounts of sugar, lemon juice or vinegar to keep the foods safe for winter. Canning is very time consuming and can be expensive when buying additional ingredients. Freezing keeps the food in it's natural state until you are ready to eat it.

Here's an archived post from a previous year describing the process of blanching, a must-do step in order to make the best of your vegetables.

Blanching & Freezing Vegetables and Fruits

Summer's bounty is all well and good but what do you do with all that sustenance once it's brought in from the elements. Scientists say that food enzymes begin to break down the minute items are detached from their mother plant. Food can decline quickly if not stored properly.



Certain foods can hold their own if conditions are right. Potatoes, rutabaga, and apples** can all 'over winter' well enough in cold storage but what to do with the rest.

I like freezing a certain amount. I preserve by canning when I can. Storing canned items takes no extra electricity to sit on a shelf, not like frozen food that needs a near constant supply of energy to stay frozen. But you can not can everything. And so freezing becomes a great advantage in our day and age.

Almost all food can be frozen but most need to be put through a process called BLANCHING, a quick boil process that stops the enzymes from progressing and subsequently spoiling food. Without blanching a certain food's texture will become... well let's just say undesirable and leave it at that.



Blanching and freezing the harvest seems to be this long hidden secret. A secret that forces everyone who is not 'in the know' to buy commercially frozen produce at astronomically high prices, never knowing how much they are being ripped off. It doesn't take much time either, and when you think about it, it saves oodles of time in mid-winter when making a soup and all you have to do is pull these frozen garden delights from the freezer all washed, sliced and ready to go.




Blanching works well for lots of foods. My favourites are carrots, corn, brocoli, cauliflower, and sometimes tomatoes.

Here's how to blanch: wash and cut your vegetables while having a pot of water coming to a boil on the stove. Once the pot reaches a rolling boil, fill it with your vegetables and start the timer. It usually takes 2 to 4 minutes depending on what you are blanching. Time varies depending on the variety of produce so make sure you check below. At the end of the allotted time, drain veggies in a strainer and then submerge in ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Once the veggies are cool to the touch, you can pull them out of the water, let them dry for a few minutes and then pack in freezer bags or storage containers. Freeze right away.

Blanched veggies are good for soups, stews, casseroles, and as steamed side dishes. And researches say that frozen veggies are so similar to their fresh state that they contain the same amount of nutrients as those found in fresh veggies. And compared to how much food needs to be altered to can it, that's a pretty good deal. They should be consumed in 1 year.

Here's a list of various food that can be frozen and their blanching times.

Asparagus: small 2 minutes/ medium 3 minutes/ large 4 minutes

Beans (Green and Wax): cut 2 to 3 minutes/ whole 3 to 4 minutes

Beans (Lima): small 2 minutes/ Large 4 minutes

Brocoli: small to medium 3 minutes/ large 4 minutes

Carrots: 2 to 3 minutes

Cauliflower: 4 minutes

Corn (Cut, whole kernel or cream style): 4 minutes

Corn on the Cob: small 7 minutes/ large 11 minutes

Parsnips: 2 minutes

Peas: 2 minutes

Rutabaga (turnip): Blanching not required

Summer Squash (Zucchini): 3 minutes best for soups

Winter Squash (Pumpkin): Bake at 350F for 40 to 60 minutes. Boil 15 to 20 minutes. Steam 30 to 60 minutes. Cool in refrigerator.

Tomato (Whole or diced): cut an X on the bottom, scald for 1 to 2 minutes because it helps to remove the peel.



** Apples and Potatoes should never be stored over winter in the same room as each other... apparently apples don't like their earthly cousin (the pomme de terre, literally translated as apple of the earth). Actually apples omit a gas as they continue to ripen which causes potatoes to spoil.