Topic: To blanch or not to blanch - Do You?

[kt.]

Does everybody blanch everything before freezing or can you freeze stuff without blanching?

[Kingfisher]

it is best to blanch greens but fruit does not blanch well, I have triedjust freezing  carrots and the went very rubbery, but the next time I blanched them they where realy nice so now I blanch everything, things like berries,  rasberries just put them in the freezer on a flat tray not touching and when they are frozen you can put them in a bag,

[ninnyscrops]

For the first pickings of runners I don't blanch just wash, top and tail, put them through the Zippy and bag up in portions for 2, but have blanched the last 3 picking and from now on to save through till next season's crops comes in. Same with whole French beans.

This year, for the first time, tried just washing spinach and shredding into about 1 inch strips across the leaf and straight into the bags, it came back very well. So I'll do the same until about mid-Sept then any glut after that I'll blanch, squeeze and freeze  :)

Basically working on the theory, if we aren't going to eat it within 3 months of harvesting - blanch it!

Have blanched some globe artichokes to see how they come back - never frozen them before but I'd got so many.

Ninnyscrops  ;)