In the great bursting forth of the summer growing season, the last thing anyone wants to think about is winter. But winter will come this year, people, just like it always does. “So, Mr. Smarty Vegetable man…” you may say to yourself, “what am I supposed to do about eating local fresh produce during the other 8 months of the year when the only vegetables around come from a can, the freezer isle, or some hot, scary, South American country?”
Well, that’s a tricky one. Obviously, unless you or a friend operate a hydroponic system in the basement or have a huge greenhouse, you can’t reeeeaaally get fresh local vegetables when they are long out of season in the dead of winter. That means if you want the best stuff, you’ll have to get it now, and figure out a good way to preserve it.
Get thee to the farmers market. Our local-est market (one of two that run all summer in Wheeling) always has a great selection of stuff, though I find great joy in the seasonality of the foods available there. One stand I always visit is the East Wheeling Community Garden vegetable booth. It is a well-run community garden, in an otherwise kind of desolate part of town, an unassuming collection of raised beds on a barren hillside under the overpass of Route 250 that raises some of the finest produce you’ll ever have. I have the greatest respect for the volunteers—largely young people—who work the garden, run the stand, bring the neighborhood together and generally kick ass in the name of providing a better food choices for their community. They are also raising money to build a greenhouse, to extend their growing season (see paragraph 1 for information on why one would want to do so) and as a nursery for seedlings which the organization can sell for fundraising purposes in the community. All in all, these are stand-up people, doing great work and all of us could learn a thing or two about what a community really is from them.
Find more about the EWCG, it’s mission, and how you can help: www.eastwheelingcommunitygardens.org
Anyway, once you go and procure your veg, how to go about preserving it? Most people immediately think of canning. Canning is a great option because once canned, food requires zero energy to preserve, and massive quantities can be prepared at once, making it a pretty efficient process. But for some, eating canned vegetables is just a sad reminder of how far off summer is. Canned veg is sometimes soft and mushy, less flavorful, and boiling can undo some of the great nutritional benefits of eating fresh vegetables. Much of this has to do with PROPER canning, and knowing how to get good results. There is an art to canning, and though I’ve tried it, it still escapes me. I will try again, but it does take a little finesse. It’s also a pretty labor-intensive business. Not that I mind working hard at something, it’s just that sometimes I don’t want to.
If you’ve got the resources (a big-ass freezer and some bags) freezing fresh veg is an option. Freezing is thought to cause less damage to the food, preserving it’s nutritional value and making it taste better than canned. Freezing vegetables usually involves blanching, a process in which the veg is plunged briefly into boiling water, then into an ice bath, and then frozen. I’m not sure what this process does exactly—something to do with killing enzymes— but everybody on the internets seems to do endorse this principle, so I figured I would give it a try.
First I needed a batch of veggies to experiment with. On our weekly trip to the Wheeling Farmer’s market, we noticed that EVERYONE seemed to have a ton of green beans. Since beans are only ready for a relatively short time, they seemed like a perfect candidate for preservation. We bought several quarts of roman, wax and regular old green beans, from a few different stands, along with our other regular market booty.
Once home, I thought I would engage in some warm and fuzzy memory-making by inviting Alice to sit on the porch and snap beans with me—which she did for about 3 minutes before something urgent, likely princess-related, required her attention inside—to get them ready for processing. One thing I hate is how little finished product you seem to have after cleaning 3 bazillion beans, or peas, or whatever. What I imagined would be an entire winter’s worth of green beans fit into one big pink bowl when all was said and done. Oh, well, I guess it depends on how many times we eat green beans, eh?
Anyway, here’s the procedure for freezing green beans. I’ve read that it also works pretty well for asparagus, cauliflower, carrots and broccoli, and I intend to try it with cut up bell peppers as well, once they start pouring into the markets.
Save the Beans: Papa’s guide to Green Bean Preservation
Step 1. Get some beans. We bought an interesting mix, because so many varieties are available. Get what you like. Preserved food is only useful if you actually eat it later.
Step 2. Clean the beans. Snap the ends off, or snap off bad spots, bug-bitten areas, etc., then wash gently in cold water.
Step 3. Blanch the beans. I did some research, and there seem to be a range of recommended boiling times, but the consensus is about 3 minutes. It apparently (hopefully) can also be done with a steamer, which is what I opted for, since it reduced the risk of spilling boiling water in the kitchen, where I’m largely wearing flip flops. While the steamer did its thing, I prepared my big bowl of ice water for the plunge. The ice bath stops the beans from cooking too much, just enough to get the job done. After steaming or boiling for 3 minutes, strain the beans and dunk into the cold water for a while, until they are nice and cool to the touch. Put them back into the strainer and let them dry a bit.
Step 4. Freeze the beans. Spread a piece of wax paper over a cookie sheet, and arrange the beans in a single layer. It may take more than one sheet. Put them in the freezer. Once they were frozen, I bagged them in small portions, just enough for a side dish, or to add in a recipe. I keep the bags small because you can always open more bags, I would rather have too few than waste any precious beans.
Step 5. Wait for winter. Then eat the beans. Smile and remember how awesome summer was.
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