Simple answer-- BLANCH. They get a 90 second dip in boiling water and then a long dip in ice water to stop any cooking. This should be done with most all frozen veggies. Corn left on the cob is great too, blanch, chill, then cut off the kernals AFTER, bag, and freeze. Beans are 1000% better tasting when blanched. I much prefer the the yellow wax bush type to green or purple types now. The blanch kills active enzymes so freezing doesn't affect them in the same way. My peas and corn are both very tasty. To save on water, use soaker hoses and a heavy plastic fabric mulch. Both will reduce drastically any water needed. My garden gets many a half hour and is soaked most everywhere. Broccoli is very necessary to blanch. Without it, the flower buds break off an dyou end up with a big handful of green granules and thick stems. Blanching has been around over 40 years, or once home frezers were not called 'iceboxes' anymore, and they kept ice cream solid.

Vegetables have different blanch times. Anywhere from 1 to 4 minutes. Most times are 3 minutes. Doing a search of freezing vegetables will give you loads of info.

I agree - Blanching and proper packaging is the key. When in doubt, go to the recognized authority - besides us that is. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Freezing Garden Produce Instructions & Recipes

Thanks To All For Your Help. Now I just have to get busy with the soil for the fall planting, but it was 116 degrees here yesterday and I can only work in short spurts and drink plenty of water. Good thing I'm used to it.

Greg

I tried to average it out to 90 seconds, but that also depends on how big the pot of boiling water is, as well as the mass of the product your putting into it. When I blanch my corn on the cobs, ist just 90 seconds, same for peas an beans. I will be blanching broccoli soon and the tender flowerettes will get 90 seconds, and the thcker stalk slices 2 minutes. If i go to 3 minutes they are a bit to soft, once frozen and then thawed or cooked. Blanch is just to kill enzymes, not for partial cooking. Thats why I fill the kitchen sink with ice and water for the cold dip.

I blanch my corn for 60 to 90 seconds and plunge in cold water. Cut off the cob and freeze. When you blanch corn and freeze on the ear, yop may get a sour taste cooked later. I have found that the water used for blanching corn on the cob is what causes the sour taste. Out of 4 different farm wells, only one had good results. It's the minerals in the water. As for canning, beans, tomatoes, potatoes are done this way for us. I don't know about city water from a water softner.

I would love to leave the corn "on the cob" if at all possible. Isn't there any way to do this and have it taste right when cooked later? I know you can buy frozen ears in the stores so there must be a way they do it.

You can leave the cobs on, but they do take 300%-500% more freezer space. Also corn loses a LOT of its flavor back into the cobs even if blanched and frozen whole. Cobs don't taste good, nore does any corn thats been lying around a few days.. If not shucked, cooked, and eaten within 20 hours you loose almost 50% of the true fresh flavor. My brothers mother inlaw was a farmers wife they had 60 acres and a farm stand in Salem NH (Hawkins Farm) We would go up in winter and be served frozen corn OFF the cob. It was as if it was from the garden a few minutes before, but that garden was all snow fields by then. The frozen ears are usually an SA, SH or SH2 type. These, I find have WAY more sweet, but lack that characteristic corn taste. They are hybrids and are genetically engineered for the higher shrunken gene that is adjusted for the higher sugar content. Its like eating bland corn with a big dump of sugar on it, yuk! If these hybrids are grwn nearby each other, they will produce toally unusable corn suitable for feed only. Happened to me already way back when.. I now stick to a good high quality no hybrid sweet yellow ears, no white, or milk and sugar, butter and cream ,or what ever the bicolor stuff is called. Good luck..