Dwarf french yellow beans

[stressydi]

I have just started picking my french dwarf yellow (waxy) beans. In a day or so I will have too many to eat in one go. Can anyone recommend a good method to preserve them please. I have in the past bought these delicious beans tinned and brought them all the way home from France. Can they easily be bottled in brine solution?

[ina]

My mum used to bottle them - I only remember that they took a long time... Can easily be frozen, of course.

[andiewill]

Yes i have blanched mine for five minutes let them cool down, then freeze, when you want to use some of the beans boil for 5 to 10 mins to your desire.

[red]

We udually freeze spare french beans - balch them - they go in boiling water for amin, then into iced water until cool. boxed and frozen.

also have pickled them before - nice in salad. i cooke them, then pack into a jar and top up with hot vinegar.

[patR]

I dont blanch anything anymore, when we first started growing our own I did... but just couldnrt get it right, veg would go soggy when cooked and just be yucky...
Ive found if I open freeze on a big tray, most things free flow... then just bring pan of water to boil and drop in veg, bring back to boil and eat... yummy. seems to work with most stuff I freeze... peas beans etc.
I even freeze courgettes, sliced and then again just put in pan, add knob of butter, crushed garlic and sprinkle with salt and put a lid on... low heat shaking often... yum..

[Millymollymandy]

I can't get french beans to be anything other than rubbery and squeaky when cooked from frozen, so excess will just be going in the compost bin this year. Yes I've tried blanching and not blanching but the end result is always horrible!

[jim]

Dear Stressydi,

Salting?

Big jar, old sweets jars are about right. Thick layer of salt, thick layer of beans alternately up the jar 'til full.

When you want to use them take out as many as needed, soak the salt off for a few hours, then cook as usual. (Towards the end they can be a bit soggy, so use them quick once opened.)

Love and Peace
Jim

[boboff]

They are great plants, not having done this before, they are so much easier to grow than Peas (which fall over) Broad Beans, which get green fly, and runner beans which needed more support than I envisaged and have ended up falling over.

If you want greens they seem to be a very productive little plant.

Are there down sides?

[ina]

Are there down sides?

Any of those beans don't seem to do well up here! Much better in a tunnel or greenhouse... Or at least in a very sheltered position. I've got a few plants in a raised bed, beside a courgette, and sheltered on the north side by shrubs.

[Millymollymandy]

If you want greens they seem to be a very productive little plant.

Are there down sides?

Agree they must be one of the most productive plants in terms of what they produce over the space they take up (very little).

The downside is that they are hard work to pick so require squatting space for humans next to the plant! Plus the beans always seem to get all tangled up in the branches making it doubly hard to pick and they get all bent or curved. How come the pictures on the packets of seeds are always of these perfectly straight french beans?

They grow really well in pots such as window box tubs too.

Ina I'm surprised that you can grow courgettes up there but not beans, I would have thought that the courgette was the less hardy of the two plants types.

[ina]

Courgettes don't do too well, either! It all depends on the weather; last two years I had practically nothing on them, three years ago I had a bumper crop. This year, I've already had one nice one off the plant, and a few more coming up - but then, it's a different garden, and a raised bed. The veg producer I work for doesn't grow them outside any more; too risky. And she would never dream of doing beans outside, either.

[Peggy Sue]

Ina, If you can't manage broad beans there then french beans aren't worth trying I'm afraid! Gotto say I'm surprised about courgettes too, still I suppose once germinated (and I do that indoors even here) then they are tough little plants.

As for preserving I have a variety you can eat as french beans or let them mature for borlotti beans which I dry & freeze & seedsave. They dry fine but I'm a coward and like a back up, they don't take up much space in the freezer and are fab in stews, soups, pad out lasagnes etc. Might have to check your variety to see if they are good for this.
Otherwise you could make bean pickle- I'm going to have a go this year as my friend's sample was lovely

[ina]

Oooops, sorry - broad beans are OK outside.... It's just any French beans or runner beans that are the problem. And I now always make sure the courgettes plants are a good size before I plant them out.