Butter Beans

[Colin_M]

I cook them in large batches and have portions ready cooked in the freezer

Morning CJ, can I ask about this?

I'm trying a few new varities of bean his year, with a view to harvesting the beans inside, rather than than the whole pods.

Several places talk about freezing the "fresh" bean rather than letting them dry completely. However I believe they mean picking them and freezing them uncooked (I think Seeds of Italy suggest this).

Do you reckon this is worth it, or is it better to let beans grown for this purpose go all the way to a dry pod hanging on the vine before harvesting them, to get the maximum growth/ripeness?

I guess even with the S.O.I method, they'd need coooking once taken out of the freezer.


Colin

[alan refail]

Colin

I think they are very reliable frozen fresh. Then, when defrosted, cook them. Dare I suggest my "recipe" from the April thread on borlotti?

viewtopic.php?t=3621&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Alan

[Colin_M]

Thanks Alan, that link closes the circular connection nicely!

Last time, I didn't even realise I'd grown Borlotti's. Those were a climbing variety and like another person on that message thread, mine were very disappointing.

This time I've bought dwarf ones and the seedlings (planted around 10 days ago) are already 8 inches high & raring to be planted out. I'd assumed that dwarf ones didn't need much support, but is it best to tie them to some sort of short cane?


Colin

[cevenol jardin]

Hi Colin sorry i didn't see your post till now. Fresh shelling beans are a bit of a delicacy in these parts, thrown into soups & stews etc. I've harvested shelling beans (coco blancs are especially good)when they are fresh, (not dried in the pod just nice and plump with the beans showing through the pod), as they are so delicious. So far i have not had enough of them to go about freezing, used as they are picked.

The butter beans I've been freezing were cooked from a bought in dried state but when i get my own crop (slight hic up on that front as the winds blew down my frames this week) but I hope to freeze fresh if i get any(they still need to be cooked - I think).