[Steveharford]

yep. I agree BQ. soft and tasteless

[Aunt Sally]

Yes, I like my runner beans to squeek when I chew them

[tosca100]

I've always detested frozen beans, but out here we don't really get fresh veg all year round like the UK unless you go to the big supermarkets in the big towns, and even then it's very limited. So the choices were bottled or frozen. The only bottled ones I like are either pickled or tomatoes so frozen it is. I will just have to get to like them, like I did frozen courgettes last year. I am certainly not going to the supermarkets.

Tried salting french beans last year but didn't trust myself. Also sauerkraut, which got forgotten when the builders were here and I didn't trust that either. Will try again this year.

[Beetroot Queen]

Yes, I like my runner beans to squeek when I chew them

I never realised they squeaked for other people, I was always afraid to ask incase people thought i was daft. 

[8doubles]

Yes, I like my runner beans to squeek when I chew them

I never realised they squeaked for other people, I was always afraid to ask incase people thought i was daft. 

I like my runners to squeak a bit but not as much as squeaky beans (french) which i am not fond of .

[snowdrops]

At our house we call French beans squeaky beans & runners fighting up beans . I make a runner bean Italien recipe, you cook finely chopped onions with runners sliced & fresh tomatoes with garlic & seasoning, lovely with roasts etc or pasta,as a side dish, freezes well too.

[sunshineband]

Ewwww frozen beans. Yuck. I would rather be beanless.

Do people not find they go soft. I like a bite to my bean

I blanch mine for only two minutes and open freeze before bagging as others do.

I cook from frozen, straight into boiling water and cook only for three minutes. They are perfectly good, as long as, of course, you use decent beans and not the old beany tough ones 

[heygrow]

Steve, are the jars you use glass or plastic. The glass jars are very expensive.

[Steveharford]

hi heygrow i use the plastic ones. i think i paid about a quid each from the sweet shop, but couldnt resist spending a tenner on pear drops and spearmint chews while i was there. I love sweets :-)

[heygrow]

Well I have followed Steve's instructions. I have noticed that the ones at the bottom have let out quite a bit of liquid, so they are sitting in about an inch of water in the jar. Do you think they will be OK?

[Kristen]

So I just enjoy them as a fabulous seasonal treat  (as do ALL my friends and neighbours )

We grow for maximum flavour (not yield etc.) and freeze almost nothing, choosing to eat with the seasons instead. Pipe-dream during the Hungry Gap, but we manage OK for the other 10-or-so months of the year.

We are also not very organised, so for us we would be finding unused packets of beans in the bottom of the freezer years after the fact ...

I wonder what the cost-benefit equation of freezing beans, and the like, is?

Even assuming that the time taken is ignored (as is my time for sowing, planting, weeding and harvesting) I wonder what the cost of boiling blanch water, freezer on Boost, and [say] 6 months electricity running the freezer is? Perhaps its next-to-nothing, I just have no feel for whether it is even a measurable cost.

[mumofstig]

The freezer is on all year anyway (fridge/freezer) - so it makes sense to fill it up with home grown veg

[8doubles]

Well I have followed Steve's instructions. I have noticed that the ones at the bottom have let out quite a bit of liquid, so they are sitting in about an inch of water in the jar. Do you think they will be OK?

Glad you asked that as i have just done a jar and wondered whst the run off would be like.

Brine is a good preservative but i do not know  if it is best to remove it .

[Steveharford]

I cant imagine it being a problem although Ive never noticed it happening with mine. did you start with a good layer of salt in the bottom? And maybe you needed to be adding more salt than you were doing as you filled the jar? I completely cover each layer of beans so that none show above the salt. Any moisture I get is gloopy salty stuff. not runny at all.

[Mrs Bee]

I have never done them this  way Steve. May give it a go if there are enough runners left.  Ours are tailing off at the moment.

We tend to eat the runner beans fresh. We don't like frozen runners.

I do freeze the French beans tho', to see us through the hungry gap. They are not as good as fresh but are OK.