Allotments 4 All

My borllotis are doing nicely now and I opened one up today to find 7 green beans roughly the same size as the beans I planted.

I want to save them for drying and use in chillis etc. When do I do this and what techniques does everyone use? Do I leave them to die back on the plant? etc etc etc

Glow

Hi Glow

I successsfully dried my borlottis last year as well as runners and french beans.

First of all, I let the pods dry on the plant (although you can take the pods off first)

I put a couple of sheets of newspaper in a dry seed tray and laid the beans out on the paper (I find that they prefer a tabloid to a broadsheet  ;))

Put in a dry place for about a month, checking now and again to see if they have dried sufficiently.  This bit is important as they must be completely dry before storage to prevent the possibility of mould.

I put mine in a La Parfait jar cos I wanted them for cooking (they are yummy in sausage casserole) or you can store in paper bags/envelopes fo next year's seed.

Good luck!

Hi glow
Must be something in the air!
I harvested the ripe ones today - dry pods, yellow foliage - just cut off the stalk at ground level. Then hung them up in the greenhouse to finish them off. When rattly, I'll shell them - although the Italian lady next door just leaves hers in pods til she wants them!

If you test a pod for dryness, the beans inside should be milky white and marked with red - if they're green, leave them a little longer ::)

I did mine the same as supersprout last year, and will do the same this with the runners as I stop picking them now so I have plenty of beans to harvest.

I harvested mine last weekend and they are as SS described - and far too pretty to eat!   :o   ;D

G x

after my great bean storage failure of last year, i am shelling and storing the beans fresh in the freezzer, instead of drying and losing them all again to bean weevil like last winter :(

We froze ours too. The ones we tried to dry in the same way as SS, rotted.

I don't have enough to store - just enough for one chilli I reckon.   ::)

G x

We love borlotti beans so much, they never make it to storage, I reckon I would need a whole plot just put over to beans to be able to have enough to freeze ...

Cheers all especially SS again

Incidentally most of mine that have "filled out" seem to be big and shiny does this mean I shall still leave them on a while or do as SS described now.

If I do this can I also save as seed for next year?

So many questions so cr*p at typing

G

Hi glow, this year I kept an eye on my Italian neighbour. She harvests her beans when some of the pods have gone papery (tan) - some will still be pinky as in the pic. A bit of trial and error ... I've seen pics of borlotti on sale in pods in Italy, and the pods look fresh - tho I suspect these are for fresh borlotti dishes. Oh, there's so much to learn isn't there! ::)