by Bozena Hartley

Created on: May 12, 2009

Harvest time is when you finally get to enjoy the fruit of your labor. An abundant vegetable crop is every gardener's pride, but sometimes it can be too much of it. You can share it with your family and friends, you can donate some to a good cause and there still might be plenty for your own use. Many vegetables do not keep well in room temperature and stay fresh only for a short time even in the refrigerator. Since you can only eat so much zucchini or green beans a day, the only option is to freeze the excess. In fact, freezing is the easiest way to store vegetables to preserves their fresh flavor and most of the nutritional value.

Select vegetables that are young and fresh, straight from the garden. If you allow them to sit for too long, they will lose some of their flavor and nutrients. Also, there are several kinds of vegetables that do not freeze well, for example: cucumber, endive, kale, lettuce, and radishes. The best veggies for freezing are the ones that can be cooked.

For best freezing results, turn your freezer setting to the lowest temperature possible. The goal is to freeze the vegetables as quickly as possible to preserve freshness, nutritional value, and to eliminate bacterial growth. When you put fresh food into the freezer, it makes the temperature to rise. The super low setting ensures the frozen food remains frozen and the fresh food freezes quickly.

Before freezing your vegetables you will have to blanch them. Blanching is a process of heating (boiling in water or steaming) vegetables to kill bacteria and to stop the action of growing enzymes. Even after picking enzymes continue to make the vegetables grow and can cause over-ripening, loss of flavor and changes in color. If vegetables are not blanched, the enzymes will be active even during frozen storage. Blanching also wilts and softens vegetables and make them easier to pack. Blanched vegetables retain almost all of their vitamin C.

You will need a large pot, a wire or a steaming basket, or even just a sieve for keeping the vegetables contained and for easy and fast removing from boiling water. For best results blanch one pound of vegetables per gallon of boiling water, placing them in a single layer on the bottom of the basket. Cover the pot. It will ensure even and fast blanching. Different vegetables require different blanching time, which will be given below. If you choose steaming the vegetables, add 1and minutes to the blanching time. After blanching remove

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