Have you checked your freezer with a refrig/frzr thermometer to assure that it is at zero degrees or below?

Freshly picked veggies keep their texture and flavor when frozen as soon as they are harvested. Corn bought in the grocery store might have been picked a week ago. If you grow your own veggies, the story goes that you should have the pot boiling for blanching before you go pick. If they have to wait to be shucked or snapped or whatever, put them in the refrigerator to cool from the outside air temp but don't let them wait more than an a couple of hours. Don't pick in the middle of the day - very early morning is best. Have a bowl of ice water ready too so that they can be lifted out with a strainer then plopped in immediately after the blanching time is reached. Let them sit in the ice water the same length of time you blanched them. Lay them out to dry quickly (I pat mine with towels but don't get obsessive about it). Lay the veggies on cookie sheets lined with wax or parchment paper, or lightly PAM sprayed. Put into freezer and let them get frozen solid, a couple of hours. Then put in Zip-Lok freezer bags (not storage bags). You can also use a vacuum sealer for portion sizes. I've not used glass jars because they take up too much space. I reuse my veggie bags many many times.

It could be that you are cooking, steaming, micro'ing them too long. Only cook until the center is warm not hot. For cooking all my frozen veggies I use a Black & Decker electric steamer and rice cooker. Target, Wal-mart stores carry them for @$30, Ebay for $15. Put water in the bottom and dial to 15 minutes, plop in the frozen veggies, some differences if you are at higher than 1000' altitude.

Nancy

Yes, suggest that you check the temp in that freezer. It needs to be at zero to give you the best storage quality. Any higher than that, and quality goes down as does texture. Also, look into a freezer alarm. Its a battery operated sensor that would sound an alarm if the temp rose above 25 degrees. Most self defrosting freezers actually defrost slightly and then refreeze again. These cycles are timed and if they are on too long, as in the case of a stuck defrost timer, the freezer wil never reach the required temperature again. This happened to my dads very old freezer, and so I had to jumper the timer as it was not a part you could buy anymore. Once that was done, we had to manually defrost it about once a year, or the shelves would push the door open with all the build up frost inside.

When I cook a veggie that was blanched and frozen, its done in the microwave WITHOUT ADDING ANY OTHER LiQUID. I use small corningware casserole dishes with glass covers. You would be amazed as all the water that gets cooked out of the veggies after only 3-4 minutes in the microwave. I drain them and add butter, or margerine at serving time. The quality is very close to fresh, considering a long time freezing storage. For corn, its blanched on the cobs, then cut off and frozen. I use ice water to quickly cool the blanched food. Never steam blanch as its not a consistant heating method.

Hmm, I've done every single thing the both of you recommended in regard to blanching and cooking with the exception of one thing - I didn't lay the vegetables out on a cookie sheet to freeze. I packed them up immediately in their freezer bags and laid the bags as flat as possible in the freezer. I guess this summer I will try the cookie sheet route.

Also, now that you mention it, it is very possible my freezer is off. I don't have a full freezer yet, just using the top-of-my-fridge freezer. It does seem to not quite run right - sometimes things are frozen solid, other times they are soft. I suppose the poor vegetables have been thawing and re-freezing over the course of the winter.

Hoping to get a chest freezer this year.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it!

:)
Dee

the bags are plastic, but I freeze on a cookie sheet and seal with my vacuum thingie. You can wash and reuse those bags.
I think your problem is the the freezer ... attached to a fridge (particulary if you have a thru-the-door beverage and ice dispenser) even when running properly, it doesn't get nearly as cold as a stand-alone and the door is opened many more times.
k

The only reason for the cookie sheet method is because once they are blanched and quickly cooled, they still have traces of water on them. If tightly packed in a plastic bag they tend to freeze up into a clump. If ice cream has an odd taste and texture when stored in the freezer as if it were dehydrated, the freezer may have to long a defrost cycle. A good cheap freezer thermometer is useful. One of mine here as a horizontal one that just sits on a shelf with no readings except a center line mark that is the optimum freezing temperature of zero. I see it boldly every time I open the door. My side by side with ice and water in the freezer door is always very cold. I left a can of soda in there for a little over a half hour to quickly chill it and it almost exploded. Mine has four ways to make freezing temperatures more finely tuned by the use of baffles that open and close, an adjustable port hole at the bottom of the freezer that pours cold air over to the meat area of my fridge, and then the regulat temperature setting knob and a seperate freezer and refrigerator knob. Its a Kenmore, my mom bought about 25 years ago. I do notice my newer upright freezer is more aggresive when it comes to removing frost and creating ice crystals inside the freezer bags. The FS machine is great though as most anything I bag (mostly meats) keep really well. I wouldn't use the FS for beans as they are just too many small spaces between each bean, so pulling a vacuum would crush most, or would be more bulky and have bigger open spaces inside, if the beans were frozen on a cookie sheet first. You simply cannot pull all the air out of a bag of beans that were previously frozen on a cookie sheet. On the other hand, things like perogies, ravioli, and Peking dumplings are better if they get individually frozen before bagging. Nothing worse than trying to seperate a big block of pasta all frozen into a big lump. Refrigerator temperatures should be set at no more than 40 degrees. Mine is down to 34 and keeps everything very well. After adding the Ozonator unit, the stuff in the fridge lasts MUCH longer now and nothing gets any off tastes anymore. Much better than a box of baking soda.

I fill the bags after freezing on cookie sheet. I haven't done green beans, but have done corn, okra and butter beans and it works well with the foodsaver.
kay

I'm freezing my first batch of corn tonight, and did a quick search to refresh my memory. I realized I never thanked you, Kay and ksrogers, for your further posts.

So, thank you!!

:)
Dee

Dee,

How did it go? (I guess you won't know till you eat some later?)

I wanted to say that I have never been thrilled with the texture of frozen beans --- or summer squash. Always a bit mushy no matter how short a blanching time and how well frozen.

So I stopped bothering to freeze those---I can a few jars of pickled beans, and I use my squash all shredded up in zucchini bread.

But corn was a different story---I found it held up very well to freezing.

Just my own experience!

Zabby

When cooking my veggies, I use the microwave and do NOT add any liquid. The veggies are in covered corning ware dishes and take just 3-4 minutes for most things. I much prefer yellow waxed beans now, compared to most green bean types. When I grow corn, its not a hybrid type, and is blanched on the cobs and then I use a cutter to remove the kernals. Hybrid corn has sugar enhanced properties or shrunken gene hybrids. These are SA, SE, SH2 types and I do not like their overly sugary taste, and faint corn flavor. Its almost like dumpimng sugar in the cooking water. They made these extra sweet for longer storage time before being sold. Growing these hybrids near each other or near regular corn will give you something that isn't even worth a toss into the compost pile. When cooking after it was frozen, I do not add water for cooking in the microwave, same with peas, and broccoli. You would be surprised at how much water is exuded from the microwave cooking, so I drain it prior to serving.

I like cooking my frozen vegetables the same way as you do Ken.

A tip that I picked up here works well for me. When I take the vegetables out of the ice water I throw them in the salad spinner to dry.

Wonder what I did what that salad spinner, lol.
I prefer frozen beans over canned anyday. In fact I found a quart in the back of the freezer this June from last season. Had a friend over for dinner that night told her it was from last season, she thought they were fresh. I steamed them. If I am in a hurry I nuke em.
I dry alot of corn, more than freeze, but seem to have no problems freezing.
I disagree with Ken about the growing near each other hybrids.
On my farm I grew 5 different types of corn this year.
the fields have feed corn, my upper garden had bread and butter and a super sweet hybrid, around the old satellite dish ornamental corn and at the pool planter Zea Maize Quatro ornamental.
Last night I pulled the super sweet and I was eating it raw it was so tasty.
To accomplish this TIMING is the key.
The different corns are sowed 2 weeks apart from each other, that way they don't pollinate at the same time to deter cross pollination.
I have been doing this for 4 years now, with no "cow corn" taste to my sweet corn

I was lucky to get a free upright freezer this summer. I vaccuum pack, then place in a ziplock baggies.

With a tightly spaced corn patch, I had big kernals and stunted ears. I suppose planting and harvest times do make sense, but I chose 3-4 types that were all planted at the same time, so most matured the same too. In every seed catalog I see, they advise against planting Sh2,, Sa, Sh, and Se corn near each other. Further than a 100 feet apart would give some protection against cross pollination of the different types. I simply don't like the overly sweet sugar types, as they have more sweet than flavor. Even bicolor for me is not an option, as I like it all yellow and just slightly overripe when picked.

For frozen beans, I stopped growing green and purple types. Now I like a yellow waxed bean as they have a milder flavor and its not affected much by a blanch and freezing. I switched two years ago, and use up most of the yellows, while the greens are sitting there in the freezer shrinking. Cow corn, and its a taste, per se, is usually the same flavor as regular corn, but the formation of a fully mature ear length is very common. Mine had maybe 5 rows of kernals near the base, and none beyond that, just thin white tips and under developed areas. Many were all bad on one side down to the stems too. Wind plays a big part in pollination.