Author Topic: Runner beans  (Read 5352 times)

Borlotti

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Runner beans
« on: July 20, 2017, 16:33:25 »
Had 3 runner beans, which were delicious 2 days ago, and with all the rain went to the allotment but no beans, but they are flowering well.  Little Miss Impatient.  Picked another yellow courgette, and the raspberries that I cut right down are just starting to produce.  Hopefully the heavy rain will mean beans soon.

AnnieD

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2017, 22:41:31 »
We've had 2 meals off mine. I look at them and I can't believe that I grew them.  Just wait till I pick my first sweet corn!  :tongue3:
Located in Royston, North Herts.

Digeroo

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2017, 06:12:06 »
I have had a few beans: I have been showering them with water, but now it has rained a bit the flowers are setting rather than dropping off.  There is a promise of a lot more beans in a few days time.
Mrs Lewis's climbing French has been doing a good job while I wait.

Poppy Mole

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2017, 10:13:33 »
came back from holiday last weekend to discover lots of nice beans, which have lasted me several days this week. lots more by the weekend.

caroline7758

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2017, 10:32:50 »
Had my first picking of Cobra this week, although I think some of them must have been there last weekend and I missed them - they were all at the bottom of the plants.

tricia

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2017, 11:37:16 »
I've been picking Cobra since 29. June and Tenderstar since 16. July and have already frozen enough of both varieties to last the coming winter. I don't think I'll grow Tenderstar next year - it shed its flowers for a long time before deciding to give me beans to harvest and even now the pods don't grow very long, not more than 15-18cm. They have a good flavour though!

Tricia  :wave:

terrier

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2017, 13:13:01 »
Think I'm going to give up on runners, the slugs eat them as fast than as I can plant them. The few I have left have a few flowers on so I may get something this year, fingers crossed.

GRACELAND

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2017, 14:21:13 »
 :icon_cheers: i had two carrier bags full so far
i don't belive death is the end

Borderers1951

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2017, 18:23:29 »
Had my first picking of Cobra this week, although I think some of them must have been there last weekend and I missed them - they were all at the bottom of the plants.

There are always one or two  hiding in the foliage.  I went over one row this morning after my wife had scoured it three or four times and I still found half a dozen lurkers.  After several weeks of very little or no rain here in Shropshire, we're having a glorious downpour today and my water butts are full again.

johhnyco15

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2017, 21:54:58 »
as the school holidays have started here on the sunshine coast the population nearly trebles  so my young daughter sell runner beans from the front of our house tomorrow she has beetroot, chillies flat french beans ,cabbages runner beans , courgettes and apricots from a table outside our house bless her she charges £1 per bag  i  bagged up 150 bags of stuff tonight for her little venture shes only 9 bless her ill let you all know how see gets on by this time next year will be millionaires lol to coin a phrase
johhnyc015  may the plot be with you

ACE

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2017, 22:35:36 »
I got a flower bucket full earlier in the week and armed with my trusty bean stringer/slicer they are now all in the freezer but another handful went towards dinner, lovely fresh taste this time of year. Had to forgo the courgettes so they are now getting big like marrows. But it is the allotment open day tomorrow so they will go in the boxes of veg for giving away to the entertainers which is mostly my morris dancing team.

strawberry1

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2017, 07:16:23 »
ace, do you blanch these stripped beans of yours? I did chopped and blanched last year but ended up hating them. I am thinking that those stripped beans, I have a stripper, would be better as the strips would vanish into soups and casseroles. I don`t like frozen beans as they are but am succeeding in making ratatouille type assortments to freeze in containers ie courgettes, shallots, tinned tomatoes etc. Very welcome through last winter, worth the effort of making them. I have had masses of runner beans this year, they were the first to start producing on the plot, moonlight with weed fabric on either side to conserve moisture
« Last Edit: July 23, 2017, 07:18:37 by strawberry1 »

ACE

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #12 on: July 23, 2017, 08:37:15 »
Always blanch our beans before freezing, they are not as nice as fresh beans, but passable. As the aim is to eat our home grown all year round with any veg, freezing will have to do.  When I was a nipper, we used to have salted beans, I cannot remember how they tasted, but before freezers, that is how they were kept. Does anybody do that nowadays?

GRACELAND

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2017, 11:12:23 »
We only Slice our beans or shred then not just chop into bits   thin slices seem to work well no blanching either !
i don't belive death is the end

Vinlander

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #14 on: July 23, 2017, 12:24:22 »
Frozen beans are pretty grim - I really don't like the texture of frost shattered cells in any fruit or vegetable. Peas and broad beans are immune (probably because of the skins), and mushrooms are too (beats me). 

You would think that the experts at the frozen food companies would have fixed this if it was fixable but theirs are no better - I'd rather eat wet cardboard.

On top of that we occasionally got some odd fishy smells - even from blanched beans (though runners were worse than french).

Good quality canned (especially bottled) beans actually taste much better  - almost indistinguishable from boiled fresh beans.

Since those failures we have always made a bean meal "precursor" by cooking them lightly (optional bit of tomato paste & garlic) in the pan that had fried a bit of onion, so it can be eaten as a starter and only needs a bit of meat or fish or whatever to become a proper meal.

This takes, if anything, less space in the freezer than raw or blanched beans and never fails to delight.

Cheers.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2017, 12:27:47 by Vinlander »
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

Digeroo

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #15 on: July 23, 2017, 13:03:09 »
I do admire those who do a lot of preserving.  I tend to find myself throwing things out many months later when I finally get round to sorting out the freezer. 
I do not like frozen beans, so once my own ones stop, then I buy those flat French beans Morocco.   They squeak between your teeth when you eat them so my children have always called them Squeaky Beans.   My daughter actually prefers them so this year I am growing Pantheon which are doing very well.  They have been rather slow to get going but now and starting to drip with beans, flowers do not drop off.  Picked a large handful yesterday.  They are not affected by the backdoor bees who drill into the back of the runners so they do not form beans.  It seems to be one small furry bumble bee who starts it off then then all the rest go the wrong way.

Paulines7

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #16 on: July 23, 2017, 15:24:30 »
Think I'm going to give up on runners, the slugs eat them as fast than as I can plant them. The few I have left have a few flowers on so I may get something this year, fingers crossed.

Try putting some slug traps down, terrier.   You can make them from plastic bottles.  See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqs4YHUr7Kg

AnnieD

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #17 on: July 23, 2017, 16:53:52 »
Frozen beans are pretty grim

I agree the ones you buy, are. But I find frozen fresh ones are pretty good,  just slice them and freeze on trays, no blanching.
Located in Royston, North Herts.

caroline7758

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #18 on: July 23, 2017, 21:02:04 »
I fond this recipe earlier this week- haven't tried it yet but will do soon:
https://lynnecurry.com/2012/02/best-frozen-green-beans/

Paulh

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Re: Runner beans
« Reply #19 on: July 23, 2017, 21:02:43 »
Frozen beans are pretty grim

I agree the ones you buy, are. But I find frozen fresh ones are pretty good,  just slice them and freeze on trays, no blanching.

Also let your plants get as big as you can before setting them out - two or three pairs of leaves, 12" - 18" tall: they will be tougher and less attractive to slugs. Ok, so that's what you do already - you need to change your slugs!


 

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