Processing green beans can be tedious. First, the beans must be washed.  Bush beans hang close to the garden soil.  They come in pretty dirty.  These pole beans are mostly hanging in the air off of the garden floor.  That makes the cleaning phase easier.  I rinse them several times in cold water. Then I move on to phase two.

 

 

This phase is snipping.  The stem-end of the bean and the tip of the other end must be removed.  This can be done by hand or with a knife and cutting board as shown here.  The knife and board method is much quicker when time is of the essence.

At this point there are a few options for the cook to decide upon.

1. Cut the beans
2. French the beans or
3. Leave them whole

When this part of the processing is done, we are ready to blanch the beans. Blanching partially cooks the beans in preparation for the freezer. To blanch bean, bring water to a boil, then add the beans, cover the kettle with its lid and time the boiling for  4 minutes.   Then plunge the beans in a cold water bath to cool them quickly. When the beans a sufficiently cooled, you may package them in your freezer bags or containers. Label the packages with the contents and the year in which the processing was done.

There you have a little information on how I do my bean, beans, beans.  You may find other sources stimulating, too.  You might like to check out how to freeze green beans at this link as well.

 

photo credits:Wenda Grabau