On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:36:36 +0100, Judith in England
wrote:



I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful.


That's great: many thanks for all the responses: appreciated.

(I also hadn't thought of drying and saving for stews and soups if there are
loads of them).

Judith in England wrote in
:

On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 15:45:56 GMT, Baz wrote:

snip


As a matter of fact I have sown my early pea and broad beans a few
days ago. I have enough if they fail, and will sow more and more as
the year goes on. Up until June sowing.


Sounds interesting - can you expand a bit. Where are you - are they
outside or under cover etc etc


I am in North Lincs.
The seeds are outside and are covered with debris netting until they
germinate to stop cats scratching around. I remove the netting and hope for
the best after germination.
Peas are Hurst Greenshaft and the broad beans are Bunyards Exhibition.
Neither of these are noted for their overwintering qualities, but it works
for me. Apart from getting a crop a few weeks early I like to see some
things growing during winter.

Baz

In article ,
Judith in England wrote:
On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:36:36 +0100, Judith in England
wrote:

I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful.

That's great: many thanks for all the responses: appreciated.

(I also hadn't thought of drying and saving for stews and soups if there are
loads of them).

For anyone interested, the key to cooking them is this:

Pour boiling water over them, let it cool, throw it away, and
repeat several times. This is to reduce their flatulent effect!
They will swell as this goes on, which helps later.

Boil them for 10 minutes to destroy the toxins, and then
simmer until soft enough. Do not use salt in the water, which
can make them tough.

You can then use them (and the cooking water).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Pete wrote:
What does the team think of using seed of more than one year old ?

When I moved in here the next door neighbour gave me a bag of old beans
which were about 12 years out of date, and I believe every single one of
them germinated. Runner beans particularly seem to be very good at still
working forever*

Btw, you want to watch out when following up to a post not to leave the
sig separator ('-- ') in your post - my newsreader automatically cuts off
sigs in replies, so your entire post was missing when I tried to reply,
which isn't too hard to fix, but you may find other people strip of sigs
when reading, so your post content would have been invisible to them.
(if that makes sense)

On Sun, 14 Oct 2012 13:09:58 +0100 (BST), wrote:

In article ,
Judith in England wrote:
On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:36:36 +0100, Judith in England
wrote:

I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful.

That's great: many thanks for all the responses: appreciated.

(I also hadn't thought of drying and saving for stews and soups if there are
loads of them).

For anyone interested, the key to cooking them is this:

Pour boiling water over them, let it cool, throw it away, and
repeat several times. This is to reduce their flatulent effect!
They will swell as this goes on, which helps later.

Boil them for 10 minutes to destroy the toxins, and then
simmer until soft enough. Do not use salt in the water, which
can make them tough.

You can then use them (and the cooking water).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


souper : cheers

(if that makes sense)

notalot !!

But thank you for your seed life info all the same (:-)

Pete

On 14/10/2012 13:09, wrote:

For anyone interested, the key to cooking them is this:

Pour boiling water over them, let it cool, throw it away, and
repeat several times. This is to reduce their flatulent effect!

Will that work for Jerusalem artichokes?

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France
http://rance.org.uk

On 14/10/2012 09:48, David in Normandy wrote:

The important thing that others haven't mentioned is to keep the bean
seeds in a cool, dry airy place over Winter. I once made the mistake of
putting them into a sealed plastic tub and the following Spring it was
just a rotting mass.

It will work if the beans are thoroughly dry. I put mine into a sealed
glass jar after making sure that they are dry and I haven't had any
problems.

The reason for doing this is to prevent mice getting at them. In this
house the mice will eat anything, whether edible or not. Last winter
they ate the numbers off my phone as well as the labels off pots of jam,
even the plastic bottle tops. In the past they gnawed their way through
a plastic bottle of linseed oil! Can you imagine the mess? In spite of
having our cats over here for a month in the summer, and they caught up
to five mice/voles per day, they don't seem to have made any inroads
into the population because they have had a lot of my grapes. How do I
know it was mice? Because I found their secret store of grapes and grass
seed behind one of my shutters. My wife says that they were planning to
make some sort of whisky!

David (also in Normandy at the moment)

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France
http://rance.org.uk

On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:46:41 +0100 (BST), wrote:

In article ,
Judith in England wrote:

I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful. I have always
used bought beans as seeds. This year I have left some beans unpicked - they
are quite long and quite big beans inside them now.

I intend to harvest, dry and us as seed for next year.

Have the pods dried out and are the beans mottled dark brown? If
not, they aren't ripe enough and you may as well cook them. A
rule of thumb that I use for French beans is that, if they shrivel
when I dry them out properly, they aren't ripe enough to germinate.

It depends what variety of bean you gtow. I grew runners which had
white seeds. Waiit till the pods are dry and crisp.
I always left some pods on the plants to dry off, Maybe difficult
this year. If you dry them off the plant make sure they have plenty
of air, or they will go mouldy. I didn't buy bean seed for years, but
have given up allotment this year. I how have a box of accumulated
mixwd beans. Will try soaking and eating, following the cautions
about boiling.

Pam in Bristol

In article
,
says...

I have a vast stock of the glut year of 2009 Runner seed.
What does the team think of using seed of more than one year old ?




In 2006 we were away for 6 weeks through the
summer, and all my Broad beans "matured" and
turned brown. Collected masses of seeds whcih
I used for the next 5 years, with virtually
100% germination. Sadly I had to buy seed this
year!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
says...

You might find this chart of use
Veg and flower seeds and how long they are at their best:

Veg seed Flower seed
No of years
Asparagus 3 Ageratum 4
Aubergine 5 Amaranthus 4-5
Beans 3 Anthemis 2
Beetroot 4 Anthirrhium 3-4
Broccoli 5 Calendula 5-6
Brussels sprouts 5 Celosia 4
Cabbage 4-5 Cineraria 3-4
Carrot 3-4 Clarkia 2-3
Cauliflower 4-5 Cosmos 3-4
Celeriac 5 Digitalis 2
Celery 5-6 Eschscholzia 3
Chicory 5 Gaillardia 2-3
Chinese cabbage 5 Godetia 3
Cucumber 5-6 Helianthus 2-3
Endive 3-4 Heliotrope 1-2
Fennel 4 Hollyhock 2-3
Kale 5 Impatiens 2
Kohl rabi 5 Larkspur 1-2
Leek 3 Linaria 3
Lettuce 4-5 Linum 1-2
Marrow 5-6 Lobelia 4
Melon 5 Marigold 2-3
Onion 1-2 Mesembryanthemum 3-4
Parsley 2-3 Myosotis 2
Parsnip 1-2 Nasturtium 5-7
Pea 3 Nicotiana 4-5
Pepper 4 Nigella 2
Pumpkin 4 Pansy 2
Radish 5 Petunia 2-3
Salsify 2 Phlox 2
Scorzonera 2 Salvia 1
Seakale 1-2 Schizanthus 4-5
Spinach 5 Sweet peas 2-3
Sweetcorn 1-2 Sweet William 2
Tomato 4 Viola 1
Turnip 5 Wallflower 4-5
Watercress 5 Zinnia 5-6




Thanks Dave, a usefl list for the catalogue
season!

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
David Rance wrote:

For anyone interested, the key to cooking them is this:

Pour boiling water over them, let it cool, throw it away, and
repeat several times. This is to reduce their flatulent effect!

Will that work for Jerusalem artichokes?

No. The heavy sugars are mostly in the bean skins, but are in
the artichoke flesh. Sorry - nice try, but no banana :-)

On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:36:36 +0100, Judith in England
wrote:



I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful. I have always
used bought beans as seeds. This year I have left some beans unpicked - they
are quite long and quite big beans inside them now.

I intend to harvest, dry and us as seed for next year.

Any comments or suggestions please.


I left some broad bean pods on to dry. They're dry now and I reckon
the mice have pinched all the beans. They have buried some peas that
fell off on the far side of the plot from my pea bed though.
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

On Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:15:34 +0100, mogga
wrote:

On Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:36:36 +0100, Judith in England
wrote:



I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful. I have always
used bought beans as seeds. This year I have left some beans unpicked - they
are quite long and quite big beans inside them now.

I intend to harvest, dry and us as seed for next year.

Any comments or suggestions please.


I left some broad bean pods on to dry. They're dry now and I reckon
the mice have pinched all the beans. They have buried some peas that
fell off on the far side of the plot from my pea bed though.

I was once left in charge of a friend's garden while they were off on
a cruise, in January. They had sown a tray of broad bean seed and
suspended it by wires from the roof of the greenhouse.
I found holes in the compost where the beans had been.
How the mice got at them we never worked out.

Pam in Bristol

"David Rance" wrote

The reason for doing this is to prevent mice getting at them. In this
house the mice will eat anything, whether edible or not. Last winter
they ate the numbers off my phone as well as the labels off pots of
jam, even the plastic bottle tops. In the past they gnawed their way
through a plastic bottle of linseed oil! Can you imagine the mess? In
spite of having our cats over here for a month in the summer, and they
caught up to five mice/voles per day, they don't seem to have made any
inroads into the population because they have had a lot of my grapes.
How do I know it was mice? Because I found their secret store of
grapes and grass seed behind one of my shutters. My wife says that
they were planning to make some sort of whisky!

David (also in Normandy at the moment)

Whiskers galore!

--
Sue