My Lovely Hubby ... she says, between tightly clenched teeth .... picked these for me the other day. I had been purposefully ignoring the not so little blighters on the plants at the top of the Veggie Patch for a few days, hoping they would maybe vanish or be eaten by squirrels ... but no such luck!!
So I had nothing left to do but set too and start to deal with them.
I bought myself a little slicing gadget, not the best available but all I could get my hands on at short notice. Lakeland do a better, slightly easier to use one but I didn't have time to wait for delivery with all the beans glaring at me from the bench outside the conservatory silently yelling at me every time I passed 'Deal with us, deal with us NOW!!'
So a bit later the very best of them had been washed, topped, tailed and sliced ...
... spun to get all excess water out and they now reside on open trays in the freezer where I hope they are freezing their jolly green butts off.
The rest, the bigger more bean filled ones, are in baskets and after a day spent sunbathing still on their bench, are going to go into the shed to dry out to give us dried beans for Winter use or seeds for planting next year if they don't get eaten .... or if I leave the door open maybe the squirrels will come and steal them.
Anyone know how to train a squirrel?
(I Googled it and got THE most random set of images.)
Sue xx
Yours are doing well. Mine are all cropped out now but there's loads in the freezer which is very satisfying!
ReplyDeleteJ x
Just one of mine survived this year, only now got beans:(
ReplyDeleteIf you get fed up of frozen beans, I made a Three Sisters chutney one year, using runner beans, the courgettes turning into marrows, and a big bag of frozen sweetcorn from the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteWhat IS that black thing up the tree? A cat? Surely not a black squirrel.
ReplyDeleteA squirrel in a little Ninja costume .... courtesy of Google Images :-)
DeleteAnd I think it must be photoshopped :)
DeleteWonder what on earth sort of squirrel that is?
ReplyDeleteA Ninja Squirrel!
DeleteI work with 4 year olds and I get to know ALL about ninjas!
I love green beans but having said that I have left a lot on my plants that have grown too big and will be stringy (feel guilty for not using them all up or freezing them). I have got two young apple trees and this year I have one apple on each of them due to the squirrels stealing them. I also had some lovely sunflowers this year but the squirrels broke all their heads off and ran away with them (I'd have kept the seeds for them anyway but they weren't prepared to wait for that). Only had two tomato plants this year but have had lots of tomatoes from them and the taste is just completely different from shop bought - they are delicious - so one success there!!!
ReplyDeleteBean soup, bean casserole, bean crumble...
ReplyDeleteHi Sue
ReplyDeleteI have been following your blog for a long time now but I think this is my first comment!
My blog is generally about crafts and card making but I thought that you would like this post:
http://thepurplepaperpuncher.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/runner-bean-chutney.html
with a recipe for my mums runner bean chutney! ....its yummy!
Eve xx
I was going to recommend runner bean chutney too! It's my daughter's favourite- I have to ration her! My recipe looks very similar to yours except it has sesame seeds in.
Delete"freezing their jolly green butts off" ... hee hee
ReplyDeleteThat is a nifty little slicer.
And a lot of beans.
Flatulence city me thinks
ReplyDeleteI pulled out the plants three weeks ago, I have quite a few in the freezer and we had them all summer.,...enough is enough.
ReplyDeleteOur beans gave us one measly meal this year. The garden was a flop probably because of the hot, dry weather we had all summer.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
What a nifty bean slicer! We rarely get beans up here, the frost usually gets them just as they are forming, this year we are still at flowering stage! At least the flowers are bright and pretty :)
ReplyDelete