Freezing Fresh Zipper Peas

Freezing Fresh Zipper Peas, what’s the best way to do it?

When we planted our garden this year, we decided to plant corn (we eat a lot of it) and decided to try our hands out with zipper cream peas, in addition to planting Various Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, Squash, Cucumbers, and Sunflowers.

Anyways, back to the peas. Zipper cream peas are a well-known southern side dish, and always super yummy with bacon cooked in them. They are extremely easy plants to grow and produce an abundance of peas, for a couple of months.

They also have very pretty flowers, I have seen at least 5 different colors on the same plants including white, yellow, pink, and purple.

They also grow quickly and are drought resistant once they reach a certain age. I learned that only people that are from the south, or familiar with southern dishes know what Zipper Cream peas are by that name.

They are technically a type of cow bean. They call them Zipper peas in the Southern US because when shelling the peas, you snap the end and pull and as you're pulling this end/stringy piece it looks as though it is a zipper being undone.

Now, we decided to plant the zipper peas because we know we like them, they are drought resistant (a good thing with moving to a more desert-like terrain), and they produce a lot of peas! They are also super easy to store for future use, and they are a good source for protein and carbs with no fat. Every cup of zipper peas contains approximately 13 grams of carbs, and 9 grams of protein.

Okay, so once we started getting an abundant harvest daily, we had to find ways to preserve the peas for future meals, there was way too many to cook and eat at once. So, we did some research, both online and in person by speaking to other avid gardeners and we came up with the 2 following methods for freezing zipper peas successfully.

A note about the first method, this method is quick and requires no blanching and not much prepping to the peas before freezing but you want to use at least gallon sized Ziploc bags if you are saving food for a family versus one person. I included a picture below the recipe/instructions of what a quart-sized bag looks like using this method.

Prepping Zipper Cream Peas (In Hull) for Freezing

Ingredients/Tools Needed:

• Peas (still in hull)

• Med/LG Bowl

• Ziploc Freezer Bags

Directions:

1. Break off tip at each end of hull, place in bowl and set aside.

2. Fill Ziploc freezer bags with prepped hulls.

3. When ready to cook: Defrost, shell, and wash, then cook according to recipe.

*Note*

These last approximately 4 months in the freezer before starting to get freezer burn.

Also, when leaving peas in the hull, you want to use bigger bags to store so you get the serving amount you require without using multiple bags.

Pictured below is a quart-sized freezer bag as full as it could be without squishing the hulls too much. As you can see, this sized bag, once you shell the peas, is only going to be approximately 1 serving.

The 2nd method we used included shelling and blanching the peas before putting them into Ziploc bags/and or air-tight, freezer-safe containers. Below are 2 pictures of the peas that were shelled in a single batch, which basically filled a medium-sized bowl. (the bowl is pictured right below the instructions). This batch made 4 quart-sized freezer bags of zipper peas.

Prepping Shelled Zipper Cream Peas for Freezing

Ingredients/Tools Needed:

• Peas (hulled or in hull)

• Med/LG Pot for Blanching

• Bowl for peas

• Strainer

• Clean towel

• Ziploc Freezer Bags

*Note*

If Peas are shelled & washed already, skip to step 2.

Directions:

1. Shell Peas, wash peas in cold water, set aside.

2. Add water to Pot (see *Note* below).

3. Bring water to a rolling boil, add peas.

4. Leave Peas in rolling boil for approximately 3 minutes.

5. Strain water off peas, spread out on towel and dry slightly, then put into freezer Ziploc bags and freeze for up to 6 months.

6. When ready to cook, put frozen peas in pot (for soups) or defrost, rinse, and cook as recipe demands.

*Note*

I typically fill the pot up halfway; it really depends on the size pot you are using and how many peas you are prepping. You want to peas to be able to move around freely while boiling.

Thanks for visiting our blog, I really hope that either of these 2 methods for freezing fresh zipper peas helped you save time on finding a good way to do it. Keep following our blog for more entries on canning zipper peas, other gardening/cooking tips, going off-grid tips, and much, much, more!