In today’s ever-changing situation, it is always a good idea to be prepared for any mishaps, misadventures, and emergencies. One thing that will always be in demand is food. No matter if you are a family on the farm, one person in an apartment, or any number in between, long term food storage is something that you can do for yourself. Even a single person, living in the city can benefit by buying bulk wholesale and putting up their own foods.

Although every fruit or veg has its own personal requirements, freezing, canning, and drying foods is another DIY to make your life more economical and keep your family more healthy. There are many books and online articles on how to freezer, can, or dry food. The info is out there and easy to come by. For those who still like to hold a real book, as we do, you can get processing books at most any Goodwill, yard sale, flea market, library, or book sale.

On the farm, we get foods in by the season, usually in large numbers at one time. We can not use all that is available at once, so we”put them up”, as Mimi would say. This is just how you process them for long term storage, freezing, canning, or drying. For those of you who do not know, many fruits and vegs need to be blanched or parboiled before canning or freezing. This is when you cook foods just a bit to stop the enzymes that make foods spoil. It is a quick, simple process to help foods last longer.

We are going to give you the step by step process for blanching today. This will open up a wide variety of options to you for foods that you can freeze for later use. The process for blanching is very simple and only requires a few tools.

The first thing is to acquire the food that you want to freeze. You will, of course, need to calculate your freezer space to be sure not to run out of the room. We used peas for this blanching but you can use many other veg. We had bushels of shelled, cleaned peas, and just wanted to freeze them for storage. Now at this point you can grow your own or buy from a store, we do both.

You will need:

the veg, of course

a large pot for boiling

a colander pot to go inside the boiling pot makes it easier to pull the peas out of the water

a colander to strain when finished

a wooden spoon

a pan for icing the peas

ice, loose ice works best but you can use freezer packs if you prefer

we use zip lock bags but you can use glass jars or even Tupperware bins

marker for labeling the bags

a canning funnel will help you transfer the peas

a measuring cup to scoop the peas

we use another pan to save the ice water after we ice the peas

NOTE: be sure all tools, pots, and pans are sterilized before use. You can run through the dishwater, wash by hand, or put them through boiling water. The goal is to make sure all germs are dead and gone before you put the veg into the freezer or it will ruin your food.

7 steps to blanching your peas for freezing:

1. Decide on what veg you want to freeze, acquire the amount you want, and wash it well. Again, it is best to be sure you get everything clean before you start. We have a garden almost year around so most of the time we store the food we grew ourselves but some times we buy from the local farmers market. For this occasion, we bought bushels of peas that were already shelled and cleaned. We have 2 freezers so large amounts at one time is good with us.

2. Place the peas into the calendar inside the boiling pot. Use a reasonable amount at one time, not the entire bushel, into the boiling pot. Use enough water to cover the peas but not so much as to lose the peas in the wash. Boil the peas 10 mins or so. Make sure the water is hot enough to get to a good rolling boil for the 10 min or so. At this point, usually, the skins on the peas are loose and start to come off. You can use the wooden spoon to stir the peas, being sure they do not stick to the bottom of the pot.

3. Very carefully take the colander out of the boiling water. Let it drip a bit to get as much hot water out as you can.

4. Put the peas into the ice pan and add the ice. Mix with the wooden spoon to more quickly cool the peas. Here you can use the loose ice or the ice packs.  We find the loose ice is easier for us.

Again, we save the water from the cooling ice into another pan. When all is said and done, I use this water to water plants. This water is rich in nutrients and good for plants. Be sure the water is cool before watering your plants or you will scald the plants and damage them.

5. In the second colander, drain the peas for a bit to get as much water out as possible. A little water will not hurt and will help the freezing. But to much water and you will have ice in your veg bags.

6. With the measuring cup and canning funnel, scoop the now cooled peas into your zip lock bags. You want the bag full but leave enough space at the top to make it easy to close. If you are using glass jars, you will need to leave about an inch room at the top of the jar. Tupperware containers, leave a little space at the top and make sure the lid is on tight.

7. Now just label your zip lock bags or whatever container you are using with the kind of veg and the date you did them.  This way you will know what you are pulling out to eat and how old it is. I know it should seem obvious but after freezing sometimes you can not tell what food is in a container.  Believe me, it is a shock to pull out and thaw what you think is corn only to find out it is actually catfish. Pop your bags into the freezer.  We like to lay our bags out flat so they freeze flat, it makes it easier to store.  Most of the time freezing will keep food good for 6 months to a year.  Food will get freezer burn if it stays too long. But if you are like we are here on the farm, we “put up” produce yearly. So it is good to eat the older year first.

Now that you know how this is done, and how easy it is, try your hand at it. As I said, no matter the place or the number of people, you can put up your own food. Even if you can not put up enough for the entire year, any amount will help in the long run. The more you can do to make you and your family self-sufficient, the better. When you put up your own foods, you have more control over what is in it. Buying in bulk and freezing is a great way to save money in the long run also. Most bulk wholesalers are much cheaper, pound per pound as compared to buying at the general grocery stores.

We hope this show and tell has been helpful and encourages you to try it out for yourself. Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.