Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: Jeebus on October 18, 2018, 13:44
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Hi all,
This is my first year with a plot and we had a very productive runner bean crop. We had a baby this year so I didn't pick them regularly as I should have done, and as a result they are quite stringy. I've read that you can shell them and use the beans inside if you leave them on the vine, but can you still do that if you have already picked them?
I harvested a bag for life full of them yesterday and would hate to see them go to waste. Thanks for your help.
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Tip them out of the bag and put them on trays or open baskets so the pods can dry out, hopefully without going mouldy, turning them occasionally, to keep them from sitting in a rotting heap. If you can do that then the beans inside should dry out as well.
Then you can shell the beans and keep them to use in stews during winter.
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Thanks for this. What's the best way of storing the shelled beans? I shelled a few that had the pink and black speckly beans inside and put them in a clear airtight tupperwear container, but a few of them have started to sprout.
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If they are sprouting, I would either blanch them, or completely cook them and then freeze them.
If they are fully dry, they would not sprout without the addition of some water. It sounds like yours may not be fully dried, or were dried in the pods, got wet from rain and decided it was spring again.
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Thanks for your reply. I really don't want to waste any so I'm going to take your advice and cook and freeze them. That way I don't have to have them every single day!
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That way I don't have to have them every single day!
:lol: Well yes I can see that might be a little wearisome. They are nice to eat, but maybe not every day.