How to Freeze Fresh Carrots

I just picked the last of my fall carrots. Yes, I know it's May- good ole' mild Louisiana winters! I always plant the majority of my carrots in the fall. Some are ready by early winter, but others sprout late or just take forever to grow, so I let them stay over the winter and am rewarded with early carrots the next year (from January on). There were a few little scragglers left, so I pulled them all up and plan on dicing them up and freezing them for chicken pot pie! So here's how to freeze your own fresh garden carrots...

First wash the carrots well, peel them, and remove the tops. Next cut the carrots into whatever size or shape you are going to use them in. I will dice mine into quarter inch cubes for chicken pot pie, but you can slice them or keep them whole.

Now we will blanch the carrots. Blanching is a fancy word for boiling them in water for a few minutes to kill the enzymes in your vegetables that break down the nutrients over time. If you sliced or chopped your carrots, you will only need to blanch them for two minutes. For whole carrots, blanch for five minutes.

WHen they are finished boiling, strain the carrots and immediately plunge into ice water to stop the cooking as quickly as possible. Let them sit in the ice water bath for the same number of minutes that you blanched them for.

Finally, drain the carrots and lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Put the baking sheet into the freezer for 12-24 hours until the pieces are individually frozen. This will help keep them easy to separate rather than freeze together in one giant clump. 

Put the pieces into a freezer ziplock bag, and you are ready for fresh carrots any time!

How to Freeze Fresh Strawberries

I love fresh strawberries in the spring! Unfortunately, like most berries, strawberries do not stay fresh for long. In order to enjoy them in salads and smoothies year round, I freeze them in gallon sized ziplock bags. Right now my freezer is literally packed with bags of strawberries, mulberries, and blackberries. I will probably eat just enough of them to make some room to add blueberries later next month. 

Freezing strawberries is very simple, but there is a process, so here it is!

First wash all of the strawberries thoroughly and make a "V" shaped cut in the top of each strawberry to take off the leaves at the top.

You can freeze the strawberries whole or sliced in a variety of ways, but I suggest slicing them in half lengthwise. This way they are still in big enough pieces to use on top of a cake or for dipping, but not so huge that they would take forever to chop up if I throw them in the blender for a smoothie. 

Lay out all of the strawberry slices on a baking sheet so that they do not overlap and put them in the freezer for 24 hours. This will allow each individual strawberry to freeze so you end up with a bag of separate berries instead of a giant frozen block of strawberries.

After waiting a day, simply put all of the strawberries into freezer ziplock bag and pull them out any time you want a taste of early summer!

How to Freeze Fresh Garden Shell Peas

The rain let up just long enough this week for me to rush to the garden and pick all the shell peas. While snap peas have edible pods, shell peas take longer to process into what you find in the freezer section at the grocery store. While we will eat some fresh, I always want to freeze some to enjoy later!

The first, and most time consuming part of the process, is to actually shell the peas. That's right, open up all those long green pods and scrape all the peas inside into a nice pile. It may sound tedious, but its not so bad to do on the back porch on a rainy day or while watching some TV in the evening. After all, I have to come in from the garden sometime...

Next, you are going to blanch the peas. This is a fancy word for what DH calls "flash boiling". You bring water to a boil on the stove, dump in the peas, and bring it back to a boil for two minutes. This process actually locks in the nutrients and taste so that they don't deteriorate during their time in the freezer.

After two minutes, drain the peas into a strainer.

Plunge the strainer into a bowl of ice water for about a minute to cool them quickly.

Lay the peas out in a single layer on a baking sheet and put it in the freezer for 24 hours. 

The next day store the peas in a labeled freezer ziplock bag, and use it whenever you want for almost just as delicious as fresh peas off the vine!

How to Freeze Fresh Green Beans

We just had our first freeze last week, which in south Louisiana is unheard of! I am so upset that I had to pick all of the green beans, tomatoes, and peppers and say goodbye to my late summer plants. We usually have at least three more weeks! I realize our growing season is months longer than most places in the country, but I'm still sad it had to end so soon! 

Due to this massive last minute harvest, I need to freeze some of my green beans for later, so in case you are in the same situation, here's how!

In order to freeze green beans without having them lose any nutritional value, they must be blanched first, which is a really simple process. First wash the beans and snip off all of the stem ends.

 Next, bring put them in a pot on the stove and cover them with water. 

Cook on high until you have a rolling boil for three minutes. At this point the beans should be bright in color and tender crisp.

Remove the beans from the hot water and immediately place into a bowl of ice water until chilled, usually about 3-4 minutes.

 Now all you have to do is let them dry and then put them in a freezer ziplock bag. When you take them out later they will be ready to cook in whatever way you choose and enjoy year-round with the added bonus of still maintaining almost all of the nutritional value of fresh picked green beans!