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Loohan

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Registered: 2014-10-31

Posts: 32,762

How to freeze fresh home-grown greens without blanching

Almost 2 years ago i researched what i could online about freezing greens, as i try to grow a lot of them but needed to extend my eating season beyond their growing season. Most references insisted one must blanch them to halt the degradation caused by the enzymes they naturally contain.
But one site said that was outdated bunk from many decades ago when people had poorer quality freezers.
So i tried a few bags and they worked out fine. So last year i packed away a whole bunch, as i had good crops of greens.

I did the following which i just did a write-up on:

How To Freeze Fresh Greens without blanching:

1) First, you must have an efficient, modern freezer that is not overloaded nor has recently had stuff put in it which has not fully frozen yet.
And some live, growing greens.

2) Set out in advance:
Large cutting board and suitable knife (assuming you want to chop it up first, which I always do).
Large ziplock freezer bag. Pre-label the greens you will put in and the month with a marker.
Small, firm pillow -- I use a bath towel folded over so that it is a bit larger than a freezer bag.
I figure the fresher the greens are when they are frozen, the better the flavor should be.

3.) Run out with a bag or something to put the greens in (and a glove if you're harvesting stinging nettles.)
Harvest a suitable amount and run back, throw them on the board, cut them up some, and stuff in freezer bag.

4.) Keeping greens out of the zipper, zip up bag except for the last inch or so.

5.) Now put the pillow on top and lean all the weight you can on bag to force out excess air.
Finish closing zipper.

6.) immediately put in freezer.

And it worked out great! Last month i ate some that was 11 months old, and still smelled and tasted like a fresh harvest. And i had so much i ended up giving away more that i ate. Having that resource allowed me to let my fall-started kale and chard grow instead of always hungrily grazing it down to a nub as in previous years. So now i have a nice little bed of kale plants with substantial leaves.
Which i just harvested and froze a mess of:

One can re-use bags.

Nettles are at their best and most lush now at my place. As the weather warms, they will increasingly become drier, harder, more time-consuming to harvest, munched by caterpillars that roll themselves up in the top leaves (ouch!) and later become butterflies. The leaves later often get covered with tree pollen that i shake off as i harvest.
Still later they will get tasty, proteinaceous seeds which can be stripped off with a gloved hand, which are a great addition to cooked meals.
They will remain edible much of the year if kept from drying out too much. BUT the quality and ease of harvest of the leaves is at it's peak in April and early May usually.

Likewise, kale will decline in quantity and quality as the summer progresses.

Last year i usually put a mixture of greens in the bags, but this year i am trending more toward separate bags.
It is quite easy to grab part of the frozen contents and put the rest back in the freezer. Some greens go better with certain foods than others. I would not, for example, cook kale with beans, but nettles and/or lamb's quarters taste good with them.
Lamb's quarters are a favorite cooking green for me, and i cultivate and protect some from deer.
Last year i kept freezing Lamb's Quarters, kale, chard (another favorite), nettles, and even a bit of houytounia together through July at least. Chickweed is another very nutritious green, and the earliest to pop out as a weed in the spring. I am not wild about large portions of it, but some can be mixed in.
I also froze a bag of basil to rescue it before the first frost but gave that away.

Note: dark greens are very high in iron, which "seniors" should avoid absorbing excessive amounts of. Hence i usually take some zinc and vitamin E before a meal heavy in greens, sometimes chromium as well, as these supposedly inhibit absorption of iron. Alcohol increases iron absorption, so i never drink any with a meal or without a meal for that matter.

Hydroponics:
In years past i experimented a bit with hydroponics, with the result that only kale and chard seemed worth doing. But it was such a hassle to get a small yield, that i have put away my hydro stuff. It is much more rewarding to freeze dirt-grown greens which are probably more nutritious even frozen than hydroponic produce grown on synthetic fertilizer. Even though i used a high-quality fert plus an extra sea mineral supplement.
In the future i may try to find a variety of lettuce that does better hydroponically, for winter growing. Likewise mache (corn salad, deer lettuce) seems almost impssible to grow outdoors for me, so i may try that hydroponically.

Loohan

Administrator

Registered: 2014-10-31

Posts: 32,762

Re: How to freeze fresh home-grown greens without blanching

Also, sometimes i put away a bag of greens that still has room in it. A few days later i might add more fresh greens and stick it back in the freezer.
Here it is May 14 and i already have probably packed away more greens than i can eat this winter. My kale is starting to bolt but i got a big crop of chard just starting to look good. And i have a bed of small lamb's quarters going. Houytunia is coming into heavy production. It has an odd flavor that doesn't go with everything but i like a bit of it sometimes with other vegs.
Nettles are getting seeds, but i will strip seed heads and freeze them too.
If anyone visits me this winter (or summer for that matter) they can anticipate large servings of greens. With plenty of shallots.