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Preserving Garden Peas
Fresh Garden Peas
We can’t wait for our first crop of peas to be done in late June. We love freshly picked peas. They taste so good and of course, they are the first harvest from our garden for the summer. We just can’t get enough of them. Preserving peas can be difficult because we have to stop our kids from eating all of them! There have to be enough peas left to preserve for the winter. Peas are easy to grow and can be grown in both the spring and fall.
Preserving Peas
We love fresh peas so much that we want to preserve them for the coming months. We have found that the best way to preserve peas is to freeze them. Freezing them preserves the sweet yummy taste. Frozen peas don’t taste exactly like freshly picked peas, but they still taste pretty close to fresh.
It is so satisfying to know when you grab a scoop of frozen peas that they came from your backyard garden. That is as fresh and local as you can get, they didn’t have to travel very far to get to your table either.
They also taste amazing when added to your meals, soups, or eaten plain. I have a delicious cream peas and potatoes recipe that we have every year in June with fresh peas. I also like to throw frozen peas in my salads for lunch or even in my kids’ lunches at school. They taste good not even cooked.
Shelling Peas Tradition
Shelling peas in our family has become a fun tradition. We pick the peas from the garden and then all the kids come and we sit on a blanket outside and shell peas together. Some years when we have multiple times we need to shell peas we will mix it up and watch a movie inside as we shell them. We have done this together as a family for 20 years or more.
It is good family time and also a good way to get your kids working and involved with the garden. We have fun talking with each other and having a contest to see who can shell the most peas. We also probably eat too many peas in the process of shelling them too. Oops! They tend to just fall into our mouths by handfuls. This is why we have to tell everyone to quit eating them or we won’t get any peas frozen.
If you haven’t tried growing peas yet then learn how to grow peas in your garden. They are simple to plant and grow in your garden. They are an easy way to get your kids involved in the whole growing, harvesting, and preserving process.
5 Simple Steps to Preserving Peas
How to Freeze Peas?
1. Rinse Peas
The first thing we do after shelling them is to give them a good wash. We put a little bit at a time in a colander and wash them off. It doesn’t take much just a little rinsing to get the dirt off. We then put them on a clean kitchen towel to dry.
2. Blanching
This is an important step to help preserve those fresh garden peas. According to the University of Georgia guidelines, blanching peas helps to preserve the nutrition and color of the peas.
They need to be blanched for 1 1/2 minutes according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation
3. Cooling
Your Peas need to be quickly cooled down to stop the cooking process. We have a large bowl of ice water in the sink that we pour our peas into after the blanching process. We let them sit in the ice water bath for just a few minutes.
Use a colander or slotted spoon to drain the peas and pick out the ice cubes to put back in the bowl for other blanching batches. We let the peas dry on the towel for a little while.
4. Prepare for freezing
We pour the somewhat dry peas on a baking sheet and spread them so they are just one layer thick. You can line the sheet pan with parchment paper if you would like. Freeze them in the freezer for 24 hours.
It is important to freeze the peas in a single layer on a baking sheet
for 24 hours. This helps them freeze separately. Freezing them flat like this prevents the peas from freezing all together in a big old clump! This makes it easy to get the peas out later. All you have to do is take a cup and scoop out the amount of peas you will need for a meal.
5. Bag and Label peas
Take peas out of the freezer and scoop or pour them off the baking sheet into a labeled freezer gallon-size bag and seal it tight. Make sure you remove as much air from the bag as you can. You need to leave about a 1/2 inch of head-space in the sealed bags.
That is it! That is the 5 simple steps for preserving peas. It is so quick and easy to freeze peas! They last in the freezer for 8 to 12 months.
Blanching- Do I need to do it?
Blanching is a process of using heat to help preserve vegetables during freezing. It helps preserve the color and texture. It stops enzymes that make your veggies lose flavor. Blanching also blocks the loss of vitamins in the vegetable.
I know it is an extra step in the process, but it is an important step. I used to think I didn’t need to blanch my peas, but after researching the guidelines, I realized I needed to stop skipping this step.
It does preserve the color and taste. Blanching doesn’t take that long to do at all. It is worth keeping those extra vitamins packed in my garden peas that I worked so hard to grow, harvest, and shell!
Two Methods for Blanching
1. Boiling Water Method
This is the most effective way to blanch, and it is recommended to use this method to blanch peas.
Start a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Drop Peas in a wire basket and close the lid and start timing when water returns to a boil. It should be boiling again in a minute. If it is not, you used too many peas in the basket. Keep the water at a high temperature so it is boiling. It will take 1 1/2 minutes to blanch your peas.
2. Steam Blanching
This is my preferred method for blanching. Start with a steaming pot and fill the bottom with water and bring to a boil. Keep the stove on high and keep the water boiling vigorously.
Pour a single layer of peas in the steamer top pan. The boiling water should be about 1-2 inches from the steamer. Don’t put too many peas in the pan or the steam won’t reach all of them. Put the lid on the pot and start timing.
This method is easier because all I have to do is remove the steamer from the boiling water pot and pour the peas into the ice water bath. However, it does take a little longer to blanch with this method. You can check out the times for blanching on the University of Georgia’s website here.
Microwave Blanching
I did some research about microwave blanching your vegetables. I found on 2 different university websites that it is not a reliable way to blanch veggies. There is uneven cooking in the microwave and it doesn’t stop the enzymes, so you may end up with colorless and tasteless peas anyway. My suggestion is to stick with the 2 best options above by either boiling or steaming.
How to Freeze Snow Peas and Snap Peas?
You can also use this method for preserving Snow or Sugar Snap peas. The only difference is the timing and the prep work before freezing.
Basically, wash them and then remove the stems and blossom ends. You will also need to destring the peas before freezing. The blanching times are a little longer and vary from 90 seconds to 3 minutes. This depends on the pea size. Look at this article to help you decide on the blanching times.
How do you store peas for a long time?
If frozen flat first and then put into a good quality freezer bag your peas should last at least 8 months in a deep freeze. Try to remove as much air from the bag as possible and that will help. Peas will also last longer in a deep freezer than they will in the small freezer attached to your fridge.
Always remember when you are preserving foods to check the most recent preserving instructions. You can get them from the USDA, your local county extension agency, or from a recently published book. We love the Ball Blue Book 
and use it all the time.
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It is interesting that you don’t blanch your peas. Usually doing that will make them taste bad or get mushy. I wonder if it would work for snap peas. I just hate the texture of them when thawed. But what if they don’t need to be frozen first? I suppose it never hurts to try.
Daphne, we DO blanch our snap peas, we have found if we don’t blanch them they don’t last more that a few months in the freezer. But it isn’t the case with shelled peas.
Very good to know – blanching before freezing is such a pain. I’m growing shelling peas for the first time this fall. Hopefully I’ll have enough to try this out.
I like giving the USDA a conniption – good for you! Thanks for sharing at Green Thumb Thursday and we hope to have you leave more wisdom and garden subversiveness this week! https://homesteadlady.com/green-thumb-thursday-71014/
Great tips – Love the simplicity. Normally though I just like to sit in the garden and eat them right off the vine. I’m definitely a hobby gardener.
-Carole
You have to check for Maggots in peas. Eww. If one is found, don’t spread the droppings oh the intact seeds. I don’t see any point in washing. The peas came out of a closed seed casing and don’t have soil in there. A spoiled fruit can be identified and not mixed with the good crop.
I find that fresh seed casings are sweet and edible. But they wilt quite quickly in the fridge or when ripening. But each must be cut open to check for surprises inside. I don’t have experience with snap peas, and if they suffer from bugs. I’m not a cooked vegetable lover.