Frozen peas

[Odsox]

Interesting .... http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/0/23405801

Peas are just about my favourite vegetable and so far we have 5.5 Kg sitting in the freezer with another couple of rows to start harvesting from next week onwards. These we picked, shelled, blanched and froze in about half an hour with about 2 hours to spare over commercial ones, and I can see no mention of blanching in the news item which probably explains why shop bought peas taste winey and horrible as far as I'm concerned.
Also it's rather telling that the pea varieties, apart from Twinkle, are not the ones you find in seed catalogues, because of course flavour is way down the list of desirable attributes.
I really pity the 90% who have probably never tasted freshly picked Hurst Greenshaft or Douce Provence.

Edit ... I just checked my Dobies catalogue and they do sell one of the commercial varieties, Ibis, which funnily enough they DON'T recommend for freezing.

[gregorach]

I worked in a processing plant one summer, and as I recall, they do blanch them.

[doofaloofa]

We never blanche them

Too much hassle and they taste fine to me

We don'tblach any veg before freezing

[Odsox]

We tried that a few years ago and I agree that they taste just fine .... for a while. I found after being frozen for longer than 6 months they started tasting manky.
We have had frozen peas, beans and sweetcorn that have been "lost" down the bottom of the freezer for 3 years that still tasted fine.

[donegalwildman]

I really pity the 90% who have probably never tasted freshly picked Hurst Greenshaft or Douce Provence.

I grew Hurst Greenshaft for the first time this year. Best peas I ever tasted, and very long pods with 9/10 peas in each pod. I like to munch a few when weeding.

[diggernotdreamer]

I shall have to give them a try, I have never really bothered to grow peas, only sugar peas, in the past as I didn't have enough space, to grow sufficient quantity, I have some Rondo in this year, but only a small amount to try, not really sure I like them, great big pods but not as much pea in as the pods promise, Hurst Greenshaft sound better

[doofaloofa]

So what does blanching do?

[Odsox]

Well, to start with it sterilises the veg, kills any nasties that have settled on them, yeasts and moulds frinstance, but I was told that the main reason for blanching is to kill the enzymes that causes the veggies to deteriorate (go rotten).

[gregorach]

I believe the first and most important thing it does is kill them... When you harvest veg, all the cellular processes are still running - for example, especially in the case of peas, they'll still be metabolising their stored sugars, but because they're no longer attached to the plant, they won't be replaced, so your peas get less sweet. This is why it's important to have the water boiling before you pick your sweetcorn, and why "1 hour peas" (peas which are blanched and frozen within 1 hour of picking) attract a premium price.

[123sologne]

Very interesting posts.
I have frozen my peas without the blanching, but I am not worried as I am pretty sure we can go through the lot (6kg or so) within 6 months... Hubby just LOVES peas