The above photo is from one of my 3 gardens. It's my kale and collards. I've been harvesting my kale for awhile, and preserving a lot of it for winter. I preserve my garden harvests in several ways. I dehydrate, can, air dry, ferment and freeze. This post I'm going to talk about freezing. I find the best way to preserve some crops is by freezing them.

All plants have enzyme action going on in their leaves and/or fruits. This enzyme action continues even after you harvest. That's why a 1/2 ripe tomato will ripen up for you, or why corn gets less sweet as the days go by after harvest. If you pack your kale, for example, in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer, the enzyme action continues even when in the freezer. To stop this action you need to blanch your vegetables before freezing.

Blanching is easy. All it means is putting your vegetables in boiling water for a set amount of time, this stops that enzyme action. Wash and either cut up or tear up your kale, collards, chard etc. and put into boiling water. For kale and chard it takes 3 minutes, collards take 4. After that you want to drain it, then either put it into a bowl of ice water, or run cold water over it for the same amount of time you blanch it. Then drain it again, squeeze out as much water as you can and vacuum seal it.

I have a vacuum sealer and it works well on most things, however, it doesn't work well with my greens. I think the reason is even after i squeeze it out, let it air dry a bit, there's still a lot of moisture in it. The vacuum sealer keeps sucking out the moisture but never enough to get a good seal. So, for those of you who don't have a vacuum sealer, or want another way to get a good seal for your greens, I have an alternative method.

What you'll need are freezer bags, a straw, and a pot of cold water. First, pack your greens is a freezer bag. Try to get it into the corners so there's less air space. 

 Next, lay the bag down, put the straw in, and seal up the bag to the straw, getting out as much air as you can.

 Put your sealed bag into the pot of water, so that only the very top bit of the bag and the straw are above the water line.
The water creates pressure and forces most of the air in the bag out. With the bag still in the water, use the straw and start drawing any excess air out, pulling the straw up as you do that. Once the straw is out, seal that last bit of the bag quickly.

Dry off the bag and mark it (or mark it before) with the variety and the date. This method gives a remarkable good vacuum seal. Freezing any vegetable with as little air in the bag as possible will help it keep longer and taste fresher.