Blanching -- A Photographic Step-by-step. . .

Blanching is a way of preparing vegetable for long-term freezer storage.  (According to my Ball Blue Book, any produce can be safely frozen without preparation for four weeks.  Beyond that, you need to give them a little help.)  Blanching is the submersion of vegetables in boiling water for a specified amount of time in order to remove surface dirt and kill microorganisms.  It also helps to preserve color, taste, and texture.  Each vegetable has its own blanching time, so be sure to check a reliable source like the Ball Blue Book.  

What you will need:

• Large lidded pot with a strainer of some sort for boiling water
• Large pot or bowl for ice bath
• Kitchen Timer
• Cutting board and favorite prep knife
• Container for scraps
• Freezer-safe storage containers  (I use a FoodSaver, but Ball offers plastic jars, too.)
• Veggies!

For the green beans, I just snipped off the ends.  The squash and zucchini (not shown) I sliced, all the while wishing I had a mandolin.

Prepping Veggies

Only do one type of vegetable at a time, changing your water when you change veggies so as to avoid flavor issues.

Make sure your water is at a full, rolling boil.  (You can't tell it's boiling in the picture because of the squash.)  The green beans and squash I did required 3 minutes in the boiling water.

Boiling Water Bath

Remove the veggies as soon as the timer sounds.  (Overdoing it can cause a loss in flavor, color, and texture.)  Immediately immerse the strainer and vegetables into the ice bath to halt the cooking process.  This should be no longer than the time spent in the boiling water.  

Ice Bath

Allow the water to drain.  You'll notice that you can't tell the squash was in boiling water.  It looks like I just cut it.

Fresh Out of the Ice Bath, Ready for Packing

Using whatever freezer storage system you prefer, pack the prepared vegetables and put them in the freezer.  (Note:  Freezers for long-term storage should be kept at 0*F.)  There should be at least one inch of space between the packages until they are completely frozen.  After that you can stack them as you please. 

Zucchini & Yellow Squash
in FoodSaver Vacuum Bags

Happy Harvesting and Preserving!