Some great tips everyone thank you. I already have 3kg frozen and have been handing bags full to neighbours. I thought I'd discovered every recipe, but the soup and chorizo salad sound great. Tips on checking the stringyness/freshness are handy too
We pretty much only grow runners for the dried beans these days - delicious and see us through the winter.
I did harvest a few pods to eat traditionally yesterday (for the first time this year), but to be honest, I don't really see the point of all the effort to grow slightly stringy green stuff, when I can have delicious high protein easily stored food for many months to come
(If I want green food at this time of year I'm happy with chard)
You really need to let them dry on the plant like any other seed. I tried them as beans, we didn’t like them so I just grow enough for us to eat fresh, don’t like them frozen. However, the French beans are just as good blanched and frozen as when fresh, so I grow more of those.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
myclayjungle - Once we conclude we've had the last of the season's crop, I dismantle the whole rig and am regularly amazed how many pods I find amongst the foliage. The brown ones I shell, the rest I place on a metal grille in the sun to dry off. Once they're all dried, I shell what's left, place all the beans on a metal tray, and put it on the floor of the airing cupboard/hot press until well after Christmas. That's my seed.
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I tried them as beans, we didn’t like them so I just grow enough for us to eat fresh, don’t like them frozen.
However, the French beans are just as good blanched and frozen as when fresh, so I grow more of those.
Generally we'll let them dry on the plant, but sometimes pick them a little earlier if we're worried the pods will open and drop the seed...