How To Store Beans Properly

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Beans are an incredibly nutritious product, the calorie content of which is about 300 kcal for every 100 g. It is not only very rich in various minerals and vitamins, but also contains quite substantial amounts of amino acids. By the way, in terms of the content of the latter, only meat can surpass it. Beans are also considered a valuable dietary delicacy, which is actively used for various kidney and heart ailments, as well as diabetes and diseases of the bladder. And even when boiled, the beans do not lose their beneficial properties! How to keep this useful helper so that she pleases us as long as possible?

Proper storage is the key to success

Saving beans is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Even at the very beginning of the ripening of this nutritious beauty, harmful bean weevils can get into it and nullify all efforts to preserve it. It is noteworthy that in a single bean there are often up to two, and sometimes up to three dozen of these gluttonous parasites. They gnaw winding passages in the grains, filling them with extremely unpleasant products of their own vital activity, and then pupate there. Undoubtedly, such beans irrevocably lose their excellent taste.

The most important condition for the safe preservation of the cherished grains is a well-chosen temperature regime. If the thermometer drops below ten degrees, the larvae of bean weevils will stop developing, respectively, it is best to store the beans at a temperature of five to ten degrees and at a humidity not exceeding 50%. It turns out that the only secluded place in a city apartment that allows you to successfully preserve beans before winter is the refrigerator.

Having poured dry beans into strong linen bags, they are placed in the vegetable compartment or placed in cells on the door. And for greater confidence, it is recommended to put a few dry unpeeled garlic cloves side by side. By the way, instead of them, you can use ash from bean pods (a tablespoon will be more than enough for a standard half-liter jar) or dry dill seeds. All of these additives are designed to repel harmful insects.

Since there is sometimes not enough space in the refrigerator, you can store beans in the winter and on the balcony or in some other fairly cold shelter. By the way, if you store it in cloth packaging, it is perfect for subsequent planting.

It is also important not to forget that before sending the long-awaited crop for storage, all the beans must be carefully sorted out and properly dried. It is generally accepted that peeled beans are best preserved. But grains, the surfaces of which are damaged, are not suitable for storage.

Winter storage

To reliably preserve the beans throughout the winter, the grains are subjected to a life-saving heat treatment. To do this, they are placed literally for four to five minutes in an oven preheated to eighty to ninety degrees. If harmful insects nest in the grains, then during such processing they will certainly die. The processed beans are laid out in dry glass containers and closed tightly. To avoid the appearance of any other pests, you can put garlic in jars, and then transfer the beans to a cold place. In this form, it can be stored for a very, very long time, only the calcined grains will be completely unsuitable for planting.

How to freeze green beans?

Green beans are a very popular and beloved product by many. To preserve it, most summer residents resort to freezing, because you can keep the pods fresh in the refrigerator for only a couple of days.

Before starting freezing, the ends are cut off the beans, cut in half and blanched, then dried, distributed in airtight bags and sent to the freezer. Frozen beans do not lose their valuable properties for six months.