Kimmy: I usually end up eating almost all my pole beans and just have a few to freeze. But I was charmed by an old technique of stringing pole beans up to dry. You completely dry them out, like you would with pintos or black-eyed peas. They are called "Leather Britches" and once dried, can be stored in a dry glass container. You can reconstitute in soups or stews or just broth.

Hello Kimmy,

What I do when I have a lot of beans is: Clean them, cut off the stiffer bit at the vine end. Blanch them in boiling water for 2 minutes, immediately, put them in ice water to quickly cool, and in doing so keeps them green. Drain, very, thoroughly. This step is very important, or they will be watery when you want to cook them.

Put in vacuum freezer bags. If you don't have the freezer bags, just try to squeeze out the air in the bag, or suck the air out with a straw.

I have used this method with potatoes, zucchini, corn-on-the-cob. I must say, that the zucchini turned out watery and squishy. I must have over cooked it at the beginning.

When you are ready to eat it, just microwave a couple minutes to warm it up. If the veggies are small like peas, out of the shell or corn off-the-cob, just pour boiling water over them to heat a bit.