Freezing and Blanching Broccoli and Stalks

Our local food bank sometimes gets large amounts of fruits or vegetables and can't give them all out. I sometimes dehydrate them or freeze them. The other day, I was buying groceries and I was craving broccoli. I am tight on funds and thought how great it would be to be able to get some broccoli from the food bank. 
 
I spent over $6 buying a package of frozen broccoli to go in the fridge thinking that I've never seen more than few random broccoli ever come through there in all the years I have volunteered there. 

Around the same time, I was working in the yard and with all the rain we have had, we had several mushrooms growing in the grass. I haven't ever seen that in the front yard and they were weird looking mushrooms and got quite large. 

As I was picking the mushrooms out of the grass to throw away, I thought about how the dehydrated mushrooms I dried a few years ago were almost gone and it would be great if the food bank got a lot more so I could dehydrate more.

It wasn't more than a day or two when I spoke with someone at the food bank and found out they had a pallet of broccoli that had cases of bagged, washed and cut broccoli florets. 

I was able to get two cases to freeze and dehydrated. I also got some corn. Click here to see how we process that to freeze.

I spent almost two full afternoons trimming and processing the broccoli.

I made a video on how I blanch and process my broccoli before freezing it. I have done this for near 30 years as back in the day, you had to blanch fruits before dehydrating them with the old school dehydrators. 

I have always processes my own kale and corn but usually, broccoli is too expensive to purchase just to freeze as it is more cost effective and easier to just purchase it already frozen. 


To blanch it for freezing, I find cheese cloth. I usually find it at second hand stores or on clearance after the deer hunt or canning season.

I cut a piece and fold it several thicknesses into a large square.  I boil some water in a medium sized sauce pan full enough that it will cover about two cups of vegetables. 

If the broccoli is already washed and cut and the florets are the size you want them to be for use, put the broccoli into the cheese cloth, fold it corner to corner and "end" side up with all the four corners at the top. 

Twist it so there is a little "ball" at the bottom. Dip the "ball" into the hot boiling water for about 30 seconds still holding it at the top. It doesn't take long. 

Pull the bag out of the water and let it drain. You can stick it in a bowl to drain more but I just let it drip for about 30 seconds. 
 
At this point, some people dip it into cold water to stop it from cooking but since I do such a short dip, I have never dipped it in the cold water.

I then "dump" or spoon the contents of the cheese cloth into a freezer bag. I leave the top open until it cools and then I zip it closed and place three or four of the smaller bags into a larger freezer bag. When I double bag them, they tend to stay fresher and taste better not getting that "freezer" taste.  


Every time my back hurt or my feet ached from standing so long working on the broccoli, I gave gratitude for the blessing of getting the two things I had "wished" for that week. 

I know my Heavenly Father has angels watching over me. I truly felt blessed and watching over as I filled up my freezer to overflowing again and now I can enjoy broccoli any time as I ended up with over 32 bags as I finished up a few more today. 


No one can tell me that my Father in Heaven doesn't exist.... I can't tell you how many times I gave gratitude this week. I am SO blessed.