In article ,
Spider wrote:

You're certainly right about picking them younger; we try not to let them
get too tough. We always miss one or two, though :~(. It's my mouth
that's the modernist, btw; the rest of me is fairly old fashioned ... yup,
including the body, before anyone else says it:~). When you say 'dried'
runners, do you mean the entire pod, or the inner seeds?

I am a bit of an old fossil, as people may have guessed :-) I mean
the inner seeds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

wrote in message
...
In article ,
Spider wrote:

You're certainly right about picking them younger; we try not to let them
get too tough. We always miss one or two, though :~(. It's my mouth
that's the modernist, btw; the rest of me is fairly old fashioned ... yup,
including the body, before anyone else says it:~). When you say 'dried'
runners, do you mean the entire pod, or the inner seeds?

I am a bit of an old fossil, as people may have guessed :-) I mean
the inner seeds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

:~). I thought you must have. RG has tried them, but I confess I didn't
bother. I'm sure they'd be good in a casserole, perhaps I should try that
sometime.

Spider

"jamps" wrote in message
...
Spider wrote:
"jamps" wrote in message
...
K wrote:
jamps writes
®óñ© © ²°¹° wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:11:57 -0000, "jamps"
wrote:
Last year I grew very successfully, and for the first time,
runner beans. I was disappointed with the lack of flavour and
wondered which, in your opinion, have the best flavour.

Don't call me picky, but if there was a distinct lack of flavour,
how were you very successful? loads of tasteless greenery?

Thank you for your replies - something to think over! I hope to
get more flavour this year.
I had a lot of beans and picked them when they were quite small -
one stringy bean will ruin a panful of good beans!

I'm wondering whether too much water makes for less flavour? On the
other hand, is it actually possible to give to much water to a
runner bean?

I rarely watered them - only when there was a long dry spell and
that was rare last year!
--
Jamps.


Begs forgiveness for asking, but could they have been cooked in too
much water ..or overcooked? (Dives for cover).

Spider

Never!! Tender beans require little cooking or steaming!
--
Jamps.


I quite agree! It's surprising how many people do drown or overcook them,
though.
Thanks for not beating me up :~)

Spider

On 21 Jan 2010 11:21:38 GMT, Derek Turner wrote:

On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:11:57 +0000, jamps wrote:

Last year I grew very successfully, and for the first time, runner
beans. I was disappointed with the lack of flavour and wondered which,
in your opinion, have the best flavour.

Bob Flowerdew's 'gourmet choices' are Desiree, Kelvedon Marvel and (the
nearly stringless) Butler. Pick small for best flavour, whatever the
variety.

I grow Desiree. They are white floweed and almost stringless if
picked young. Someone told me once that the white flowered ones set
better for some reason, perhaps the birds don't go for them so much.
I've never had any problem.
Watering well makes a big difference.

Pam in Bristol

On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:30:58 +0000, Gopher wrote:

In message , Spider
writes

"jamps" wrote in message
...
Last year I grew very successfully, and for the first time, runner beans.
I was disappointed with the lack of flavour and wondered which, in your
opinion, have the best flavour.
--
Jamps.



My favourite is 'Enorma'.

Spider

Mine too! But don't leave them hanging too long. Nine - ten ins. just
about perfect, usually. Never really tried to freeze them - do they
freeze well? And if they do, is the taste affected? They come in such
abundance that I usually give them away by the bag load and it seems
such a waste not to put them to good use.

I don't like the taste of home-fozen beans. I've tried several ways
over 40 years of growing them but have never liked them. Don't know
what I do wrong. I grow less now, so I don't have a glut!

Pam in Bristol

On 21/01/2010 19:03, Spider wrote:
wrote in message
...
In ,
wrote:

You're certainly right about picking them younger; we try not to let them
get too tough. We always miss one or two, though :~(. It's my mouth
that's the modernist, btw; the rest of me is fairly old fashioned ... yup,
including the body, before anyone else says it:~). When you say 'dried'
runners, do you mean the entire pod, or the inner seeds?

I am a bit of an old fossil, as people may have guessed :-) I mean
the inner seeds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

:~). I thought you must have. RG has tried them, but I confess I didn't
bother. I'm sure they'd be good in a casserole, perhaps I should try that
sometime.


For the first time, last Autumn I harvested all the ripe pods that
remained and shelled out the beans. They have come in surprisingly
useful. To preserve them I've just hung them in some old tights in the
attic.

Prior to using the beans we soak the beans by pouring boiling water on
them two or three times over 24 hours - this is following Nicks advice
to "defart them". Then boil them for around 15 minutes until tender.
Then they are drained and liquidized in the food blender with a little
water and the resulting paste is mixed with some corned beef into a
meaty mash. This is surprisingly tasty and can be used in chilli as a
pie filling or served as is with greens and potatoes. You can't even
taste the bean it is lost in the meaty taste.
Nobody would guess it was based on runner bean seeds.

I'll certainly let more run to this year to harvest the seeds. They
don't even take up any freezer space - hanging them in a cool dry place.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...
On 21/01/2010 19:03, Spider wrote:
wrote in message
...
In ,
wrote:

You're certainly right about picking them younger; we try not to let
them
get too tough. We always miss one or two, though :~(. It's my mouth
that's the modernist, btw; the rest of me is fairly old fashioned ...
yup,
including the body, before anyone else says it:~). When you say
'dried'
runners, do you mean the entire pod, or the inner seeds?

I am a bit of an old fossil, as people may have guessed :-) I mean
the inner seeds.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

:~). I thought you must have. RG has tried them, but I confess I
didn't
bother. I'm sure they'd be good in a casserole, perhaps I should try
that
sometime.


For the first time, last Autumn I harvested all the ripe pods that
remained and shelled out the beans. They have come in surprisingly useful.
To preserve them I've just hung them in some old tights in the attic.

Prior to using the beans we soak the beans by pouring boiling water on
them two or three times over 24 hours - this is following Nicks advice to
"defart them". Then boil them for around 15 minutes until tender. Then
they are drained and liquidized in the food blender with a little water
and the resulting paste is mixed with some corned beef into a meaty mash.
This is surprisingly tasty and can be used in chilli as a pie filling or
served as is with greens and potatoes. You can't even taste the bean it is
lost in the meaty taste.
Nobody would guess it was based on runner bean seeds.

I'll certainly let more run to this year to harvest the seeds. They don't
even take up any freezer space - hanging them in a cool dry place.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.


Oooh! That sounds really interesting and, more importantly, tasty :~). I
think I need to do something to free up our veg patch first, but it's high
time we had a bean feast. Thanks for sharing that. Sounds yummy.


--
- Spider
from high ground in SE London,
gardening on clay.

In message , jamps
writes
Last year I grew very successfully, and for the first time, runner beans. I
was disappointed with the lack of flavour and wondered which, in your
opinion, have the best flavour.

I grow Scarlet Emperor and have always found the flavour very good. It's
important to pick them fairly young though to avoid stringy beans - I
pick every other day at the height of the season.

Will
--
Once you open a can of worms, the only way to recan them is to use a larger
can.
e-mail news dot will at lancre dot net
'98 300Tdi Defender 110 CSW, 1/12th NB Sometimes
PGP Fingerprint E089 1736 A023 9E5C AFA3 0B40 E5DC D80A 9E1F D521
Public key can be obtained from ldap://certserver.pgp.com

jamps wrote:
Last year I grew very successfully, and for the first time, runner beans. I
was disappointed with the lack of flavour and wondered which, in your
opinion, have the best flavour.

Scarlet Runner - but try to get some saved-over-the-years seed from an
old gardener.

--
Rusty

wrote:

Dried, ripened runners are good, too, and make excellent winter fare.

But like red kidney beans, the ripened ones must be boiled vigorously
for a good ten minutes before being eaten.

Allegedly.

--
Rusty

Spider wrote:
wrote in message
...
In article ,
Spider wrote:
You're certainly right about picking them younger; we try not to let them
get too tough. We always miss one or two, though :~(. It's my mouth
that's the modernist, btw; the rest of me is fairly old fashioned ... yup,
including the body, before anyone else says it:~). When you say 'dried'
runners, do you mean the entire pod, or the inner seeds?
I am a bit of an old fossil, as people may have guessed :-) I mean
the inner seeds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

:~). I thought you must have. RG has tried them, but I confess I didn't
bother. I'm sure they'd be good in a casserole, perhaps I should try that
sometime.

See earlier post - should be boiled VIGOROUSLY...

--
Rusty

David in Normandy wrote:
On 21/01/2010 19:03, Spider wrote:
wrote in message
...
In ,
wrote:

You're certainly right about picking them younger; we try not to let
them
get too tough. We always miss one or two, though :~(. It's my mouth
that's the modernist, btw; the rest of me is fairly old fashioned
... yup,
including the body, before anyone else says it:~). When you say
'dried'
runners, do you mean the entire pod, or the inner seeds?

I am a bit of an old fossil, as people may have guessed :-) I mean
the inner seeds.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

:~). I thought you must have. RG has tried them, but I confess I
didn't
bother. I'm sure they'd be good in a casserole, perhaps I should try
that
sometime.


For the first time, last Autumn I harvested all the ripe pods that
remained and shelled out the beans. They have come in surprisingly
useful. To preserve them I've just hung them in some old tights in the
attic.

Prior to using the beans we soak the beans by pouring boiling water on
them two or three times over 24 hours - this is following Nicks advice
to "defart them". Then boil them for around 15 minutes until tender.
Then they are drained and liquidized in the food blender with a little
water and the resulting paste is mixed with some corned beef into a
meaty mash. This is surprisingly tasty and can be used in chilli as a
pie filling or served as is with greens and potatoes. You can't even
taste the bean it is lost in the meaty taste.
Nobody would guess it was based on runner bean seeds.

I'll certainly let more run to this year to harvest the seeds. They
don't even take up any freezer space - hanging them in a cool dry place.

I use the plastic net bags that nuts and similar come in.

--
Rusty

jamps wrote:

I also give them away as fast as I pick them. Frozen beans can be purchased
at any Supermarket but good fresh beans are hard to come by.

The trick is to blanch them and freeze them in portions in the blanching
water.

That way, you don't get dehydration, and if you finish the cooking in
the same water, good veggie stock for making proper gravy.

--
Rusty

AriesVal wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:20:10 +0000, Pam Moore wrote:

I don't like the taste of home-fozen beans. I've tried several ways
over 40 years of growing them but have never liked them. Don't know
what I do wrong. I grow less now, so I don't have a glut!

Ditto Pam, the only veg I like frozen is peas, otherwise it's fresh every
time.

Just can't agree. Properly frozen and sealed in freezer bags (not food
bags) you just can't tell the difference.

During the war and thereafter, we always had runner beans. Until the
'50s we salted them down in a five gallon crock, but around 1955 the Old
Man bought a secondhand ice-cream freezer, and I took over the crock for
making beer. (One of our hedges dripped with hops, and there was a
brewery not too far away, which sold me crushed malt...)

Another vegetable I can only get frozen (most of the year) is broad
beans. Even Chivers seems to have stopped canning them.

Mmmmmm! A joint of bacon simmered in a closed pan, creamed potatoes,
broad beans, leeks in white sauce, or just parsley sauce on the ham and
beans...

I'm beginning to feel hungry.

--
Rusty

K wrote:

I'm wondering whether too much water makes for less flavour? On the
other hand, is it actually possible to give to much water to a runner bean?

Too much water in the pan, yes. Too much water on the beans is unlikely
to happen - remember, they originally came from areas in South America,
where they grew in the spray mist of huge waterfalls.

Or so 'tis said.

--
Rusty