Freezing - to blanch or not to blanch

[squeaky]

In anticipation of a huge harvest from my allotment I should be grateful for any freezing tips you may have. In particular, is it really necessary to blanch? What does that actually do?
Last year I blanched and froze loads of runner beans and beetroot. Although they taste okay, they are rather soft.
This year I am growing various beans (runner, broad, French, climbing), sweetcorn, swede, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, fennel, beetroot, carrots and onions.
Tips on other methods of storage would be most welcome too.

[JR]

I dont blanch runners but just wash and chop and bag them up, with spinach I just was shake off chop and bag it up. We do use most things within a few months but they seem ok. With fruit we tend to wash and freeze too, or cook down with a bit of sugar as pie or crumble fillings then freeze.

We are new to the allotment this year so may have more surplus than previous, so I await any words of wisdom from everyone too. Mainly for what freezes well and doesnt.

[Odsox]

I don't freeze runner beans any more, I salt them ... they taste so much better than frozen ones and a better texture too.

Things I do freeze are mainly peas and broad beans which I blanch for a couple of minutes, then when we need a pack for a meal, as soon as they come to the boil they are ready.

[MKG]

Having seen what a slight accidental freeze can do to a few vegetables, I would have said that it's absolutely vital to blanch onions and any root crops - carrots, swede and beetroot from your list.

[squeaky]

Thank you all for the suggestions.
Odsox: I am intrigued by the thought of salting the runner beans, but have no idea how this is done. I should be grateful if you could let me have instructions.
I think that possibly I left my produce from last year in the freezer for too long. Trouble is that we were getting fed up with runner beans by the end of the growing season and therefore they were left in the freezer and I forgot about them! Last year was our first allotment year, and so most things were trial and error anyway!
Tips on any other methods of storage would also be most welcome.
Many thanks.

[Odsox]

Salting beans is easy ....
Get an empty sweet jar or any deep wide necked jar that you can get your hand into as long as it has a lid.
Slice beans as normal then add hand full of salt to hand full of beans or a layer of salt to a layer of beans, either way it's not too technical. Err on the side of the salt, you can't really add too much.
Next day the beans should be submerged in brine ... all by themselves. Just keep adding beans as and when, just make sure that the beans are submerged. They keep for at least a year.
When you want to eat them, grab as many handfulls as you need, rinse and then soak in fresh water for about an hour, drain and treat as you would fresh beans.

Onions I wouldn't freeze at all, no matter how many times and how well you wrap them the whole freezer ends up smelling of onions. Onion flavoured ice cream is not particularly nice.
Onions should keep anyway without any fuss.

Beetroot I usually cook, slice and pot in vinegar. You can then take as little or as much as you need.

Cabbage ... sauerkraut ?

[starchild]

I don't blanch broccoli - I just split it into florets and freeze it as it is.
It tastes and looks fine :)

[Lady Willow]

Blanching inactivates enzymes which should help with texture and flavour of foods that are being frozen.

If memory serves, some enzymes can be quite harmful when you later eat the food.

I might give salting a go this year, though I'm probably not organised enough to sort some jars out!

[squeaky]

I like the idea of salting too. However, I am now remembering about those lovely big jars which I threw out last year in a de-cluttering campaign! And talking about getting organised, it is about time I started trying to find space in the freezer!

I recall someone once saying that proper freezer bags should be used, as ordinary plastic bags cause some sort of problem. Has anyone heard of this before?

[MrsD'ville mkII]

I grew Feltham First 'peas' this year, which are much more like beans and didn't actually taste all that wonderful. Anyway, I blanched them by sticking them in a measuring jug, pouring boiling water on them then draining them and putting them in a tupperware. The ones we've eaten so far have been perfect in texture, just not the most delicious of beans Strawbs, rasps and redcurrants are going into tupperwares then bags as we expect to use them for jams, sauces, pie fillings etc where texture won't matter. Haven't ventured any further than that with freezing. Love the idea of salting, might well use that for other things.

[theabsinthefairy]

We store a lot of our veg by freezing and to be honest I have never blanched anything before freezing and can say that I have seen any reason to yet.

Peas and beans we just chuck into bags, spinach, chard, cabbages, kale and carrot I chop and freezer in portions, I have frozen onions that I have prechopped and then frozen in batches so I can just grab a block of prepared onion to chuck in a meal.
Beets I have frozen both cooked and raw so that I have some to make sauces and soups and some to roast.
Fennel bulbs, herbs and fruit just go straight into bags or plastic freezer tubs for easy use.
I have also chopped tomatoes, aubergines, and courgettes into bags for the freezer.
Pumpkins and squash I usually puree up and then freeze in tubs.

We do store a lot of root veg in sand boxes in the barn, potatoes in sacks and string up onions too, but I like to have the freezer full, so that in winter I don't have to go to far in our -16c to find some veg for dinner!