freezing runner beans

bubbs

Great , thankyou

givememoney

I have a lot of runner beans.

Years ago I tried freezing them and they turned out horrible.

Any advice on freezing them successfully?

Butterfly_Brain

Did you blanch them before freezing? Because I find that it alters the flavour.
I always slice rinse and put in bags and straight into the freezer and I haven't had any problems.

Patchwork_Quilt

As above but don't keep them too long either (even in the freezer) as they do deteriorate.

givememoney

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Did you blanch them before freezing? Because I find that it alters the flavour.
I always slice rinse and put in bags and straight into the freezer and I haven't had any problems.

Yes I did. I'll try your way

Thanks

Primrose

I've tried not blanching and blanching and find I get much better results by blanching. I cut them into 2" or 3" chunks, blanch for 2 minutes max, and when cool, dry them in a clean tea towel and open freeze in a tray for about 40 minutes until they're hard. I then bag them off. The merit of this method is that they never seem to frost up, they stay loose and you can just grab out however many you need instead of being confronted with a large solid mass, all of which have to be defrosted and used at the same time. The secret is not to store them for more than 6 months if possible as obviously they will start slowly deteriorating.

talos

I have grown and frozen runner beans for years and never had to blanch them. The secret I believe is to pick and freeze within 30 mins, top and tail first then slice and pack one portion size in each sandwich bag. I have kept them frozen for up to a year this way, but the flavour does begin to deteriorate after about 6 months but they are still usable for stews, hotpots and the like. But whatever you do there is still nothing like the taste of freshly picked beans cooked soon as possible after harvesting served with a knob of butter.

Ps I like a sprinkle of vinegar on mine too.

Primrose

I think it,s better to blanch of they're going to be kept for longer. It will soon be ti e to start sowing again. I cidentalky did yiu know climbing French beans are self fertile wghereas runner beans are not, so if yiu have a poor spring/summer and few bees you will get a better crops from French beans as all your flowers will turn into beans.

good_advice

2008 to 2015= a very old thread.