Gardening Season Coming to an End

The Gardening season is coming to an end, I hate this time of year and I love it.   I hate it because I can't grow anything outdoors and I love it because it is time to harvest the Pumpkins, Gourds, Squash and Sweat Potatoes.  I also bring my herbs, ferns and other plants inside and see if I can keep them alive during the winter.  Last year my plants were on the brink of death but spring came and I was able to get them into the sunshine.  This year I have built shelves in my garage next to the windows, so I will give that a try.

This winter I am going to try to keep chives, basil, mint, rosemary, catnip and some odd and end plants that I took from the flower pots.

This fall I put in a late summer box of green beans, which turned out awesome so I had some to freeze for the Winter and for Thanksgiving.  Green bean casserole is awesome with garden beans!  This box of beans was something a little different.  I let the beans in the middle of the summer (that I didn't pick) stay on the plants and turn hard.  Then I harvested the seeds and planted the box with them.  Turns out they grew and they were just as good as the seeds that I purchased.  Only difference is I have a TON of seeds.  I have enough seeds to last two or three years, so next year I will need to either buy more boxes or give them to friends.

But this afternoon I Blanched the beans.

1.  I snapped the beans and washed them.  I also got a pot of water boiling.

2. (What is this blog doing?)  I prepared a bowl of ice water.  Then I put the beans in the boiling water and let them cook for 2 minutes.

3.  After the beans cooked for 2 minutes I put them in the ice water to cool down.  Then I took them out and dried them off with paper towels.

4.  Then bagged them and labeled them and stuck them in the freezer.  Easy!  We will have some fresh green beans this winter.