"Bill Grey" wrote in message
...

"Baz" wrote in message
...
"Bill Grey" wrote in
:


A friend of mine - an acomplished gardener used to store his runner
beans (sliced) in brine.

Bill




Did your friend cook or part cook them (if any)before putting them in
brine?
Too late of course for this year but its something to try next year.
Some people would rightly say that its maybe not economical, but I love
mucking about with this type of thing an cut off a bit of the carbon
footprint if poss.(complicate subject!)
Every little helps.

Thanks for the idea.
Baz

I couldn't be sure I remember seeing jars full of runner beans and I think
they were raw, my wife confirms my thoughts.

If you try this methof I wish you every success. To have a long supply of
runner beans is certainly worth the effort.

In the meantime I'm going to se what Mt Google has to say.

Bill

Further to the above, my look at Google has turned up this site (there are
others)

http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/...ve-using-salt/

I googled "Preserving runner beans in brine"

Best wihes

Bill

wrote in message
...
Bill Grey wrote:
Not having a vegetable garden exept for a 5' x 5' raised bed specifically
created for runner beans, I had zero success this year. Not one bean
germinated :-( last year I planted young plants and had a good crop.

Oh no! I wonder why that is? We had a good rate of germination, and
they're still flowering and being pollinated even now, with insect drop
off
due to the cold.

This year I planted french marigolds (the greenhouse was absolutely
overflowing with them!) under my beans, which may have helped. If you
send
me your address I can send you some saved seeds once the greenhouse ones
dry
up (assuming they don't all go mouldy, as it's getting a bit damp in
there!)

Hi Vicky,

Many thanks, with any luck, you should have e-mail.

Bill

What is the problem with freezing runners beans? I've done it for years. I slice them, drop them in boiling water, bring back to boiling for about three minutes and cool under running water. Allow to drain then pat dry using towelling. Place loosely on a tray and leave in freezer overnight. Remove and place in plastic bags to store in freezer. I don't have any trouble with texture or taste. Beautiful when brought back to the boil and then served with diced grilled bacon and butter.

Bill Grey wrote:
Many thanks, with any luck, you should have e-mail.

Received. Will sort you out once things are dried and ready to send.

wrote in message
...
Bill Grey wrote:
Many thanks, with any luck, you should have e-mail.

Received. Will sort you out once things are dried and ready to send.

Thanks very much indeed, extremely kind of you.

Bill

wrote:

Anyone else want to offer up their favourites? (I'm bound to have forgotten
something!)

Nettles, fat hen and other oraches, young hogweed shoots, ground elder,
black nightshade berries, a whole raft of wild fungi, sloes,
elderberries, crabapples, rowan berries, melon plums, and of the fruit,
most importantly, quinces.

Oh, and I *NEVER* buy apples in grottymarkets.

--
Rusty

Bob Hobden wrote:
wrote ...((snip))

I've been having a think, and I've definitely come up with one single
item
that I would /really/ miss if I couldn't grow it myself. There were a
few
that I would miss cos they Just Aren't the Same from the supermarket, and
there are some where we just grow them for fun/easy/something to do.

Ones I could easily replace with Supermarker/Greengrocer produce...

Courgettes
yes
French Beans
seldom use them
Parsnips (not that keen on them)
yes - use a lot more than I could grow
Swede (see below)
yes - use a lot
Strawberries (see below)
my alpine strawberries are still cropping - just, but I never buy any.


Don't agree with your pain to grow list, they are all dead easy to grow
here.
I find the following a pain to grow....
Strawberries (weeds)

Grow alpines, close together, and they shade-out the weeds, cropping
from May to November, and sometimes December

Raspberries (run everywhere)

But can be weeded, uprooted, transplanted or given away with consummate
ease. Still picking my autumn golden ones.

Swede (get mildew and rot)

No room. Ground is certainly suitable.


Ones I would miss or could not replace...

Thai Dragon chillies (hot)
Inferno chillies (mild)

Chillis grown in pots here - Jalapino mainly.

Various potato varieties

I sling a few green ones in, sometimes, and grow tubs full of pink fir
apple.

Ferline and Fantasio Toms ( superb flavour when cooked in a sauce or
just fried)

Most of my toms ae seedlings from seedlings from seedlings, and are
delicious any way you like. Skins tend to be tough thobut.

Sprouts and cabbages

Not enough room - can get excellent stuff locally - indeed, next-door
has a little stall, and his cabbages and runner beans are lovely.

His tomatoes are &£$@**! awful though.

Peas

Never seem to crop well, so I buy frozen - by the scoop.

Shallots

I always orget to make a bed for them.

Boysenberries and Loganberries

Boysenberry has grown a foot in two years - it doesn't seem to be happy.
Loganberry is thriving, and so are the &%$@*X! blackbirds...

As for "Gardeners Delight" toms, yuk!

They're not that bad. I like Ailsa Craig.

--
Rusty

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:43:42 +0100, Rusty Hinge
wrote:

Bob Hobden wrote:

Strawberries (weeds)
Grow alpines, close together, and they shade-out the weeds, cropping
from May to November, and sometimes December

Have ordered a dozen plants to try for the very first time, Can you
suggest spacing distance.

Thanks

www.lincolnfuchsiasociety.info

Rusty Hinge wrote:
black nightshade berries,

I'm sure I'm going to make myself look very foolish here, but aren't they
rather poisonous?

wrote:
Rusty Hinge wrote:
black nightshade berries,

I'm sure I'm going to make myself look very foolish here, but aren't they
rather poisonous?

No. Eaten on every continent except Antarctica.

Should be good and ripe, but unripe ones will do you no more harm than
green tomatoes.

Simmer with as little water as needed to stop the fruit catching on the
pan. Add about a tablespoon of sugar per cup of berries. Add tartaric
acid to taste, and simmer a little longer.

Very difficult to tell apart from blueberry pie filling. (I ate my
blueberies off the bushes as they ripened - well, those that the black
bloodybirds didn't get...)

I collected some red nightshade the year before last and they were
propagated at a well-known plant station somewhere near Norwich. There
were about three black nightshade plants to one red in the seedlings,
which told me something.

Kew didn't have red nightshade seeds for their millennium seed project,
but they have now. (They said they couldn't tell me if red nightshade
was edible, but I supplied the 'well, I'm not even ill' info...)

--
Rusty

Derek wrote:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:43:42 +0100, Rusty Hinge
wrote:

Bob Hobden wrote:

Strawberries (weeds)
Grow alpines, close together, and they shade-out the weeds, cropping
from May to November, and sometimes December

Have ordered a dozen plants to try for the very first time, Can you
suggest spacing distance.

Nine inches keeps the weeds at bay. They'd probably appreciate more
room, and they do bulk-up into significant clumps. Propagation is by
seed - there are no runners.

I have lots of seedlings and shrivelled fruit with pips on - want any?

Some of them are probably crossed with either wild strawberries or Royal
Sovereign as the fruits tend to be of all sizes from ickle to
top-joint-of-thumb.

--
Rusty

Rusty Hinge wrote:
I'm sure I'm going to make myself look very foolish here, but aren't they
rather poisonous?
No. Eaten on every continent except Antarctica.

Is there an easy way to tell the difference between Solanum Nigrum and
Belladonna? They are ... very similar. We have one or the other on the
allotment (quite a lot of it)

In article , wrote:
Rusty Hinge wrote:
I'm sure I'm going to make myself look very foolish here, but aren't they
rather poisonous?
No. Eaten on every continent except Antarctica.

Is there an easy way to tell the difference between Solanum Nigrum and
Belladonna? They are ... very similar. We have one or the other on the
allotment (quite a lot of it)

Yes. They are like stoats and weasels[*]. Deadly nightshade is
a lot larger, with larger leaves and much larger flowers, and is
a perennial. Black nightshade is typically small, and is very
much an annual.
[*] A stoat is stoatally different from a weasel, and a weasel
may weaselly be distinguished from a stoat.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Hi Rusty

I have lots of seedlings and shrivelled fruit with pips on - want any?
Some of them are probably crossed with either wild strawberries or Royal
Sovereign as the fruits tend to be of all sizes from ickle to
top-joint-of-thumb.

That's very generous of you, I have grown strawberries for over
twenty years, but never Alpines, (never even tasted any) . I would be
grateful for the chance to attempt to grow some.

Derek
17 Minster Drive
Cherrywillingham
Lincoln LN3 4LR

Agree mulberries. Totally maintenance free, with an unmatched intensity of taste and huge crops. As well as eating them daily in season, they are my main deepfreeze-filler amongst the berries.

Medlars - something else you don't see for sale.

Apples, because you get tastes (eg spicy) that you'll never gt in a supermarket apple

And chillis, because they're fun.

Unlike other people, homegrown courgettes have been a revelation to me - much firmer meatier flesh.