How to keep your runner beans fresher for longer

Miss Thrifty4 August 14, 2011

keep runner beans fresh I think it’s fair to say that every year, without fail, Frugal Grandma & Grandad manage to turn a few runner bean seeds into a runner bean explosion. It fills the vegetable patch, the fridge, the freezer and more besides. Visitors are sent away away with plastic bags full of runner beans; those little plastic gadgets that shred runner beans into slices are a prerequisite for membership of the immediate and extended family.

So here’s Frugal Grandma’s no. 1 tip for keeping runner beans fresh in the midst of a surfeit. You need: the beans, a plastic bag, a fridge… and that’s it.

If your runner beans have suddenly gone into overdrive and are producing more than you can use and you don’t want to freeze them, this is a way to keep them fresh for some days.

1. Wash the beans and see that the stalk ends are facing the same way.

2. Put them all (without drying) into a plastic bag, which you then roll up.

3. Find a cool place to stand the bag upright with the stalk ends at the bottom. Don’t add any more water: the water from washing will be enough to keep them fresh.

The beauty of this is that you can add extra beans day by day (especially if your runner beans are not very prolific and you need more than one day’s pickings).

(Frugal Grandma sent over this tip in a moment of pique/grandmotherly concern because I haven’t posted so much recently. It’s rather good though, isn’t it? Perhaps I should go AWOL more often?)

Image credit: the hills are alive.

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4 Responses to “How to keep your runner beans fresher for longer

Jan says:

Oh, you make me so jealous! We do not see those runner beans in the Pacific Northwest but my Dad grew so many in the W. Midlands we almost got tired of them- but not quite!

August 15, 2011 at 4:54 am

That is what is great about this site, all the little tips can add up to huge savings – even if the subject is runner beans.

August 15, 2011 at 2:28 pm

Sandra says:

If you have excess runner beans use them to make runner bean chutney, I got this recipe from the WI over 30 years ago – it’s fabulous.

Runner Bean Chutney
2lb runner beans (once sliced)
1½ lbs chopped onions
1½ pints distilled malt vinegar
1 lb demerara sugar
1 lb soft brown sugar
2 – 3 tablespoons cornflour
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon dried mustard

Cook beans and onions in salted water until tender; strain, return to pan with pan with 1 pint vinegar, bring to boil and simmer for 10 mins. Mix dried ingredients (not sugar) with the rest of the vinegar and add to saucepan simmer for 10 mins until thickened. Add sugar and boil for a further 15 mins. Bottle and cover.

This is an excellent recipe that keeps really well – I’ve got some that is over 10 years old!!

August 27, 2011 at 8:05 pm

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