gbb
Squire
- Location
- Peterborough
Ah french beans.
20 years ago I worked for one of the largest vegetable freezers and packers in the country. Circa 8000 tonnes a (short) season and thats just one packing plant.
A few reminiscences if I may...
IMO, nowhere near as good as runner beans, although there is the fact they're quick to prepare, easy on the tongue and plentiful. I suspect the bountiful crop makes them perfect for the frozen food industry, they dont keep as well as runners.
Short of tobacco ?...dry bean leaves are a very poor, but still tried, substitute when theres nothing else. Bloomin awful, but some guys did in desperation.
They used to come in bulker loads, along with plenty of local flora and fauna..rabbits, usually dead, frogs, usually left legless once they'd been through the bean snibber to remove the bean tips, poor sods, and the occasional snake, which left a South African expat who used to stand in the bulker, shovelling to keep the belt moving...very nervous. He didnt like snakes, tellinh him they were harmless grass snakes was a waste of time...you'd occasionally see him swinging a shovel , battering the cr*p out of a hapless snake like his life depended on it.
Dont let it spoil your dinner, they were unusual incidents, 99.9 % of the loads were clean and good.
24 hours a day, 7 days a week the plant ran, overtime was bountiful, I used to work 2 weeks of days, 12 hours a day, then 24 hours off and restart the whole thing on night. 84 hours a week...it seemed like a good thing to do...at the time.
Just been savouring runner bean and potato bake at the resturaunt in Kefolonia, done in a light drizzle of olive oil and local herbs...gorgeous.
20 years ago I worked for one of the largest vegetable freezers and packers in the country. Circa 8000 tonnes a (short) season and thats just one packing plant.
A few reminiscences if I may...
IMO, nowhere near as good as runner beans, although there is the fact they're quick to prepare, easy on the tongue and plentiful. I suspect the bountiful crop makes them perfect for the frozen food industry, they dont keep as well as runners.
Short of tobacco ?...dry bean leaves are a very poor, but still tried, substitute when theres nothing else. Bloomin awful, but some guys did in desperation.
They used to come in bulker loads, along with plenty of local flora and fauna..rabbits, usually dead, frogs, usually left legless once they'd been through the bean snibber to remove the bean tips, poor sods, and the occasional snake, which left a South African expat who used to stand in the bulker, shovelling to keep the belt moving...very nervous. He didnt like snakes, tellinh him they were harmless grass snakes was a waste of time...you'd occasionally see him swinging a shovel , battering the cr*p out of a hapless snake like his life depended on it.
Dont let it spoil your dinner, they were unusual incidents, 99.9 % of the loads were clean and good.
24 hours a day, 7 days a week the plant ran, overtime was bountiful, I used to work 2 weeks of days, 12 hours a day, then 24 hours off and restart the whole thing on night. 84 hours a week...it seemed like a good thing to do...at the time.
Just been savouring runner bean and potato bake at the resturaunt in Kefolonia, done in a light drizzle of olive oil and local herbs...gorgeous.
Mind judging by the flowers that have 'set' we're in for the maincrop glut in 10 days or so,( luckily the snails have seen off a couple of the plants) we only planted a dozen in 2 big pots (50l of potting compost + growing room)