Anyone who grows bush beans in their own garden often harvests too many at once. Below you will find out how to preserve and freeze your French beans.

Bush beans are best blanched and frozen

What are bush beans?

The term bush beans brings together numerous types of beans that have one thing in common: they do not grow higher than 60 centimeters and therefore do not need climbing aids. So they are opposed to the other well-known and popular garden beans, the pole beans. Both the green bean pods, which are harvested unripe, and the cooked, mature bean kernels are edible.

Prepare green bean pods or fresh bean seeds

To freeze green beans, pre-clean them by washing, drying, trimming off both ends, pulling off any strings that may be present, and halving or thirds lengthwise.
The preparation of the ripe bean kernels is limited to breaking open the bean pods and scooping out the kernels.

Freezing raw French beans

The quickest way is to freeze the bush beans raw. You should keep in mind that the frozen beans lose their colour, aroma and vitamins more quickly in the raw state than previously blanched beans.
Place the prepared green beans or bean kernels in a suitable freezer container, such as a plastic or stainless steel freezer bag or box with a lid. Don't forget to label these with the date they were frozen and what's inside. Squeeze out as much air as possible from freezer bags before sealing. Then put the packaged beans in the *** freezer.

Freezing blanched French beans

Blanching the beans destroys enzymes that age the beans, i.e. have a negative impact on their taste, vitamin content and appearance. That's why it's beneficial to freeze blanched beans.

  1. Boil plenty of salted water.
  2. Put the prepared beans in the boiling water.
  3. Drain after 2-3 minutes of cooking.
  4. Put the beans in ice water for a moment to stop the cooking process.
  5. Allow the blanched beans to cool and dry completely.
  6. Place in labeled freezer bags (press out the air before sealing) or appropriate lidded boxes and seal tightly before freezing.

What should be considered when thawing and processing?

Beans must be fully cooked through before consumption as they contain the toxic protein phasin. Heat destroys it, making the beans edible. This applies to both green beans and bean kernels.
Since the French beans cannot be eaten raw, you do not need to thaw them before processing. Simply add the entire contents of the freezer container to boiling salted water and cook the green beans for at least 10 minutes, and the kernels for at least 15 minutes. These values depend on the thickness of the beans. If you are making a stew, for example, you can also add the frozen beans directly to the broth and cook them long enough.
Frozen beans should be used up within a year.

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

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Vegetable garden