Topic: Beans that have beans in them

[shambasarfi]

We’ve just come back from holiday to find that most of our beans have ripened, and how, because of this extremely hot weather.  Is there anyway to use these beans, apart from letting them go to seed?

You may recall that we were going to grow our vegetables in our back garden.  We had about 11 vegetables growing in our Council allotment, we’ve got 8 growing in our back garden.  The Swiss Chard, carrots and parsnips are not doing very well but the butternut squash have gone potty and have a lot of squash on them with more flowers forming.  I am watering them once a week with tomato feed.

We have turnips, also gone potty and a few broccoli.

Shamba

[ACE]

I take most of our beans out of their pods and dry them to use in all sorts of dishes. Cooking them correctly is crucial as you need to boil them enough to get rid of their toxins. Chillies, baked beans, bean salads etc etc.

[peanuts]

Too right, Ace. Last September we came back from three weeks away, and found our runner beans  with large seeds inside. Not liking waste, I cooked the seeds, (nothing like long enough) and we ate a big pile of them.  Against my better judgement, unbelievably the next evening I did the same.  The following day i had wind like there's no tomorrow.  Lasted two days, then horrific diarrhoea, ended up in hospital after a week.  To cut a long story short, I was ill for two months, and was hospitalised four times, each for a week.  The doctors wouldn't accept it was anything to do with the beans.  They don't eat them like that in the south of France.  I was tested for everything, parasites included, had scans, ultrasounds, you name it.  After two months of a very light diet, I was put back on a normal diet, and hey presto, I got back to normal quite quickly minus 7 kilo.  I learnt my lesson, but one that I already knew!

[shambasarfi]

Thank you Peanut and Ace for your replies.  I think I’ll give them amiss, I sowed new seed where the bean plants had got eaten and these have only just come into flower so all is not lost.

Shamba

[earlypea]

Actually, the beans inside are one of the joys of late summer.  I grow some exactly for this as do many others.   All of the beans are edible both runner and French.

They're best picked at the point when the pod is just 'on the turn' then the beans inside are mature yet still moist.  They have a lovely texture and flavour at that stage, much nicer than the dried ones.  You can also freeze them at this stage for later use.

Sure!  You got to cook them!

Runner bean beans

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/runnerbeans.html

French bean beans (butter beans) scroll down

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/beans.html

[shambasarfi]

No need to post here anymore, the beans were fit to burst and a lot had already turned brown so I cut them off and binned them.  Thank you for taking the time to reply though.

Shamba

[ancellsfarmer]

When mine pass their 'best by' date, I give them to my neighbours!!

[natalieben]

I've got quite into lactofermenting recently - very easy
e.g. https://www.thespruceeats.com/lacto-fermented-green-beans-1327620

[ancellsfarmer]

Welcome to this site. Its a resource with more good advice than anybody could require! Just go with what suits you.
Interested to know more of lacto-fermentation, have read many blogs.Would be interested in learning more of the drawbacks, they all seem too positive.

[squeezyjohn]

Lacto-fermentation is pretty cool.  However, it is generally not as easy as the websites tend to make out!  I've been fermenting my own gherkins for a couple of years and that tends to go really well, but because the baby cucumbers have so much water in them you have to compensate with a stronger brine to make sure they don't spoil (I use 5%).  I've just had another success fermenting green nasturtium seeds to make a caper substitute and they are delicious (they weren't when I tried it using vinegar pickling!)

The general principle is cleanliness (same as for home brewing/making jam).  Pack the jars with your ingredients and any additional flavouring herbs/spices leaving some head-room at the top.  Add a room-temperature brine made from water with no chlorine and sea salt because both chlorine and table salt additives inhibit the fermentation (aim for approx 3% salt brine by weight allowing for the water content of the vegetables).  Weigh the vegetables down with a sterilised stone (I just use smooth ones I've found and boil them) which just fits the mouth of the jar - if any organic material is floating on the surface it will mould and taint the whole jar.  Fit a good airlock (you can just fit a jar lid loosely, but I've had more mouldy failures with that method). Check back every day or so and you will see bubbles begin to come from the vegetables.  Check scrupulously to make sure the veg is still weighted down and look for mould on the surface - if there's only a tiny spot, it can be safe to remove with a spoon and carry on.  In this hot weather we've had the fermentation is fairly rapid - generally complete after a couple of weeks.  The salt will have prevented any bad bacterial, yeast or mould growth inside the liquid while allowing the sugars in the vegetables to be converted to lactic acid by the salt-tolerant lactobacillus.  Once they are sufficiently acidic they are also further protected from spoilage by the acid and can be refrigerated and eaten at leisure.