John came home to NJ from MD on Friday, and he brought some gifts from the garden - five gallons of string beans and 2.5 gallons of snow peas. The garden has produced so much more than we ever got in NJ, probably because we don't have persistent fungus, juglones from our neighbor's huge oak tree, and vegetable-munching critters in MD. This is mainly a good thing, but I do have to preserve this produce as it's much more than we can eat now.
So I spent an hour or two trimming the ends of the beans and peas, and then got ready to blanch it all in preparation for freezing. Boil water in the blancher, place vegetables in boiling water for four-five minutes, then stop the process in ice water, drain the vegetables, pack into freezer bags, and put in the freezer, repeat for three hours until all the beans and peas are done.
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| Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble |
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| Green beans chilling out in the sink |
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| Funny bean/snow pea hybrid |
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| Beans in bags |
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| Yellow beans (with a few errant green ones) relaxing in ice water |
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| Yellow beans piled high in the colander |
I'm glad to be done with this chore as it was long, hot, and tedious. I accidentally mislabeled most of the bags with 6/20, but I'm fairly sure we'll have all these eaten before 2020 and next year's garden rolls around, so I'm not correcting the date.
I had my knitting on the kitchen table so I could attempt a few stitches during the four minute boiling period, and I was struck by how well it matched the profusion of produce I was dealing with. (It's the little things!)
Oh my goodness -- clearly you have a green thumb! I am very impressed. We tried growing green beans a couple of years ago and only managed to grow a handful of beans. Looks like you'll have some good eating for months to come!
ReplyDeleteThat's a whole lot of beans Bonny! Come winter, it will be so nice to pull them out of the freezer. Our sugar snap peas produced like crazy this year. Our green beans which are normally out of control have not even sprouted!! Fletch planted again and still no plants. We are just beginning to harvest (6 or 8 at a time) cherry tomatoes. And I think the plan is to pull our garlic this week and hang it up to dry!!
ReplyDeleteYour knitting does match perfectly!!
That's a huge chore -- and you will be so grateful you spent the time whenever you pull out a bag of delicious, home-grown veggies from your freezer! And, yep. You've got a produce-hitchhiker there! XO
ReplyDeleteWow! And, I was so excited to pick a handful of beans yesterday! I bow to your garden superiority! (And, a husband that actually picks the produce!)
ReplyDeleteTHAT is a lot of produce! Nice work Bonny. I hope you sat down with something cold once you'd finished the task!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Get your grins where you can!! Such bounty!
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of beans and peas! Even though it was hot and tedious, come this winter you will be so glad you made the effort to freeze them.
ReplyDeletewow - I was impressed by the NJ garden (the Garden State, right?) but MD ... wow! and now you're going to have to name that Hitchhiker Summer Bounty! (and promise to wear it when you're enjoying those peas when it's cold outside!)
ReplyDeleteWell that's one productive garden! Wow. Not one brown spot on a bean at all! How did you manage that?
ReplyDeleteJust very lucky! There's no fungus, bugs, plenty of rainfall, it's the perfect garden!
Deletegood gracious what a vegetable haul!! Now to eat all of it or store it :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!! Your memories will be good ones when you enjoy almost fresh veggies with dinner!
ReplyDeleteBountiful harvest means work in the kitchen. I imagine you will be thankful for all those garden veggies this winter. Lots of good soups and stews. I love it when knitting matches something else in my life.
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