How to Freeze Purple Hull Peas

Canning and freezing have been making a huge comeback in the past few years, especially in the suburban and city populations. We country girls have always canned and frozen our food. A bag of frozen peas from the frozen food aisle is good, but doesn’t begin to compare to the freshness of home preserved. Also, there’s a certain domestic satisfaction that comes with having a full freezer and a fully lined shelf of jams, pickles and tomatoes. One of the best blogs I have found on food preservation, particularly canning, is www.foodinjars.comI made a little trip to my parent’s home this week and came back with some home-grown tomatoes and two bags of purple hull peas. If you don’t have a garden or don’t have access to one, Farmer’s Markets are popping up everywhere.

Freezing peas or any vegetable, for that matter (except potatoes) is such an easy process. The only real time consuming part is the shelling.

By the time I got around to making a picture, I had already shelled these. But, this gives you an idea of what to look for if you make a trip to the Farmer’s Market. Purple Hull really means what it says.

Beware, though! Your fingers will turn purple! It will wear off in a couple of days.

Aren’t they beautiful? These are just shelled and ready for the freezing process.

Put the peas into a pot of boiling water. Let them boil for a couple of minutes.

Have a large bowl of ice water ready. The ice water will cool the peas and stop the cooking process.

Drain the peas in a colendar and then pur them immediately into the ice water. It won’t take long for them to cool. Remove the ice with a slotted spoon and drain the peas once more in the colendar.

I have always frozen produce in plastic freezer bags, but this year I found these freezer containers in the canning section. Leave a little room at the top, because they will expand when they freeze.