A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Way too much Collards "greens" How can I save them..

to enjoy later in the season.
I need to find a way to keep/save collards (Georgia Southern)for later use. Do I just cook and freeze them or maybe there is a better way?

Thank you.

Spearo when I have an over abundant amount of collards, I just cook 'em up and deep freeze them,, that way they are ready when I want them,
I've never just cleaned them and bag for freezing with out cooking,, I suppose one could do that,, I'm Just not sure how they would thaw( texture / retain flavor) for cooking them .

I did just that thank you. How long do they keep in good shape weeks or a few month?

I put them in the deep freeze Longest was 6 months,, refridge' freezer longest 3 months.

Spearo--

I just checked with my "expert" (husband). Here's how we do it:

Clean, remove main stem if you want. Boil enough water to cover them. Boil (blanche) for 3 minutes. Immediately put into an ice-water bath (pot of ice water). Drain & put into freezer bags.

We use an electric pasta cooker for all of out pre-freezing blanching. It's great because you put the veggies in the strainer part, and after the 3-minutes of boiling, you can just pull the strainer part out & dump the collards in the ice-water bath.

"They" say one year in the deep freezer, but we would only do 6-8 months.