In nature, all living things are found in the food chain. Beans with their nutritional properties are no exception. Where it is grown, specific insects and bean grains live. When infected in the habitat, with grains, these insects spread, getting to places where beans do not grow, but there are a lot of them as a result of storage.
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Therefore, all warehouse premises are treated with insecticides on a schedule in order to destroy not only the weevil, but also other insects in the warehouse. The question of how to store beans for winter consumption is largely related to preserving them from bruchus, the bean grain.
How to properly store beans
Experienced gardeners know that growing beans is not as difficult as storing them. After all, a small pest beetle, the bean borer, penetrates the bean grain at the beginning of its ripening, during the hottest summer period. One bean can contain 20-30 beetle larvae. They gnaw holes in the grains, leaving behind waste products, and pupate there. Through the thin shell you can see how many black dots are in the grain - these are beetles or their traces if they have already left the bean house. Damaged beans cannot be used as seed, and also lose their beneficial and taste qualities. No matter how many grains are spoiled by the pest, the entire harvest will be lost in winter if you do not have information on how to properly store beans.
Storage temperature
The optimal temperature for storing beans should be 5-10°C, and humidity no more than 50%.
The main condition for preserving legumes, including beans, in winter is the correct temperature regime. Bean grain larvae do not develop at temperatures below 10°C, so the optimal temperature should be 5-10°C and humidity no more than 50%. Before the cold weather sets in, the only place where you can store beans at home is the refrigerator.
Dry beans are poured into linen bags and placed on the refrigerator door or in the vegetable compartment. For greater confidence, add unpeeled dry garlic cloves, dry dill seeds or ash from bean pods (one tablespoon of ash is enough for a half-liter jar). These additives are believed to repel insect pests of legumes. Considering that there is always not enough space in the refrigerator, in winter it is permissible to store beans on the balcony or in another cold place. In fabric packaging, beans will be well preserved for planting.
Another important rule is that beans must be well sorted and properly dried before storing. There is an opinion that beans that have been peeled from the pods are stored better. Grains with a damaged surface cannot be stored.
Storage methods
Each housewife has her own time-tested methods for laying beans for the winter. However, they all have certain advantages and disadvantages:
- Maintaining temperature conditions. After the clean and dry grains take their place in the boxes or bags, you need to choose a cool enough place for them. In late autumn and winter they can be stored on a glazed balcony. Before the onset of cold weather, raw beans should be placed in the refrigerator, otherwise pests will begin to grow in them at room temperature. A dry cellar, basement or barn is also a great place for storage.
- Heat treatment . An ordinary gas or electric oven will become a lifesaver for those who are afraid of accidentally spoiling their supplies of legumes. In order for the beans to be stored in the future under standard home conditions, they must be heated on a baking sheet at a temperature of 90 degrees for 3–5 minutes. After the grains have cooled completely, they will need to be poured into clean glass jars and closed with tight lids. A few cloves of garlic placed at the bottom will help the beans stay intact for several years. Not a single insect can live in such a product.
- Freezing . If you have a sufficiently spacious freezer, the question of where to store a small crop becomes irrelevant. All types of beans (including asparagus) retain their beneficial properties at low temperatures. Clean, dry grains can be divided into portions and distributed into containers or plastic bags. This method is very convenient for the housewife. In addition, you will not need to think about how to properly store beans so that insidious bugs do not appear in them.
- Canning. Of course, it is quite possible to purchase ready-made, factory-sterilized jars with a high-quality product. However, for legume lovers, constantly purchasing canned beans is not as profitable as it seems at first glance. To save money, it makes sense to spend some time creating your own supplies.
For canning you will need 450 grams of beans, pre-soaked in cold water. After 6–7 hours, drain the water, place the beans in a saucepan and add 1 liter of water. Then add sugar (40 grams), salt (40 grams), spices (cloves and black pepper) and put on the stove. After an hour and a half has passed since boiling, the beans will need to be tasted with the tip of a knife. The finished product is easily pierced through. At the end of cooking, add 7 teaspoons of vinegar and immediately turn off the gas. Place the cooked beans in sterile jars and roll up.
How long can beans stored for future use using canning be stored? Experts answer this question this way: no more than two years. Beans prepared in this way will be an excellent help for any cook. It can be added to various soups, such as borscht, stews or salads.
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How to store beans in winter
Many housewives, not relying on the fact that beetle larvae will sleep at low temperatures, choose a more reliable way to store beans in winter. Bean grains are cooked in an oven heated to 80-90°C for 4-5 minutes. After such heating, harmful insects die if they were there, and the beans can be placed in dry glass jars and tightly closed. To prevent the appearance of other legume pests, you can throw garlic in a jar and put it in a cold place. After calcination, the grains are not suitable for planting, but they can be stored for eating for a very long time. Such reinsurance is completely justified, because it is difficult to immediately notice the pest in the grains, and as a result, how much valuable product is eaten by insatiable larvae, how much money, labor and time is wasted!
Recently, green beans, also known as green beans, have become popular in household plots. Therefore, the question of how to store green beans is quite relevant, if even in the refrigerator the pods remain fresh for only a couple of days. To take advantage of the beneficial properties of green beans in winter, you can freeze them, and do it correctly, following the technological process. Before freezing, green beans are blanched, after cutting off the ends and cutting them in half, dried, placed in an airtight bag and only then placed in the freezer. How long to store beans frozen is up to the housewife to decide, but their valuable qualities last for six months. In addition to freezing fresh pods, there are many options for storing beans at home - pickling, canning, salting, drying. There are so many housewives - there are so many recipes. You can prepare many different dishes from canned beans in winter. Considering all the secrets of storing beans, you can prepare delicious bean soups, green bean salads or hearty bean cutlets all year round.
In the fall, beans are actively collected and stored so that in winter they can be used to make excellent dishes. Beans are harvested when most of the beans have reached full maturity. It is quite easy to determine this by dried leaves and hardened grain. It should be taken into account that the seeds of some varieties are ripe, retaining the green color of the valves.
How to get high-quality seed material
Here we will talk about how to store beans after harvesting. When harvesting beans, carefully monitor the appearance of the pods. Damaged specimens, as well as pods with discolored valves, should be immediately discarded, since it will be almost impossible to separate them from the total mass. To get the highest quality seeds, the beans need to be harvested several days in advance.
The appropriate stage of the growing season for harvesting depends on the expected quality of the product, especially if you plan to hand it over to processing companies. A rich harvest of high-quality beans can be expected if you focus on the following indicators when harvesting: the ratio of the length of the beans to the distance between them inside the pod is in the range of 1:1 – 1:0.5.
Choosing seeds
Different varieties of beans differ in the size of the beans, pods, which also have different colors, as well as the ripening period. Only high-quality material is selected for planting and subsequent propagation. The beans must be the right size, the correct shape, with a smooth, shiny surface, and, of course, without the slightest trace of damage. The listed signs indicate the usefulness of the seeds and ensure not only a high yield, but also excellent preservation until planting.
Storing beans
We talked about the details of harvesting, now it’s worth finding the answer to the question of what to do with the beans after they are harvested. Having received high-quality seed material, do not rush to relax. It is necessary to provide it with suitable storage conditions.
If winters are frosty, beans in pods are packed in bags and stored in a cool, dry room. Take the required amount of beans as needed. The best specimens of seeds are selected for storage in this way. This storage method is well suited for small harvests on small farms. The beans can be stored for several years without loss. There is no need to worry about pests, because... winter thaws, during which their larvae develop, are replaced by frosts that kill them. This way the beans self-clean. You can also freeze the beans in the freezer. After this treatment, beans can be stored for at least 6 months.
For the second storage method, ripened beans are thoroughly dried and husked. The beans are placed in canvas bags, adding dill seeds and cut garlic cloves. This will protect the beans from mold or grain larvae. Such bags are stored in a cold room. In an urban environment, this could be a glazed loggia.
Finally
It’s hard to imagine a country garden without beans. Therefore, for everyone who has it, we talked about how to store beans after harvesting. Choose the method that suits you and store bean seeds without any problems.
There are practically no problems with green beans: they can be frozen or canned according to any suitable recipe. With grain fruits, everything is more complicated: due to high humidity or incorrect temperature, the crop spoils.
It is impossible to keep beans fresh: even in an airtight container, the shelf life is a maximum of a week. But if you dry the beans thoroughly, you can extend their “life” time. Smooth, elastic pods that are not wrinkled or stained are suitable for long-term storage.
An alternative is heat treatment in the oven: 4-5 minutes is enough. at a temperature of 90 degrees. The pods need to be husked after they become yellowish and dry, and a crack appears along the line of the sash.
The prepared beans are placed in jars or containers, tightly closed and placed in a cool, dark place. The optimal storage temperature is no higher than 5 degrees.
How to store beans for the winter?
Storing beans and green pods is initially different. Green beans can be preserved using all known methods, frozen, and thus they are stored with maximum benefit during the winter. But to preserve grain beans, other conditions must be created. Considering that beans are a very healthy product that replaces meat in its composition, it is easy to spoil supplies without following storage rules.
The herbal product should be protected:
- from improper drying and laying of wet grain;
- from storage in conditions of high humidity;
- non-compliance with temperature conditions.
When beans are stored, even correctly, their nutritional value decreases over time, and the cooking time increases.
Of all the bugs that pest grain and legume seeds on beans, the most common is the bean weevil or bruchus. These insects are quarantine pests. They live in a narrow range where beans have long been cultivated. They arrive with seed material and gradually multiply. Therefore, the task of the quarantine service is to prevent the spread of the beetle to new territories.
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Recently, we stopped this insect from reaching the Far East on a Chinese ship carrying beans from India. The insect and its live clutches were found on the ship in food beans. Security measures have been taken. Bruchus often comes from the fields of Transcaucasia, they have their own species. Therefore, in home plots, each bean should be examined before planting and the seeds with holes in the bean should be destroyed by burning. This pest came to Russia at the beginning of the last century, at the height of the Civil War, when there was no quarantine service. So far no grains have been observed in black beans.
How to preserve beans so that bugs do not infest you can be understood by knowing the biology of the beetle. The weevil actively reproduces in summer and winter in heated rooms, giving 5-6 generations. In nature, eggs are laid in ripening beans, up to 30 eggs each. But the masonry is extended over time. Oviposition is found on the valves of the pod or on an unripe bean in a crack or gnawed hole. The larvae will develop in 10-11 days and invade the beans. After 21 days, the caterpillar turns into a pupa and after 10 days an adult insect is obtained.
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At cold temperatures of 0-10, the death of larvae and pupae occurs within a month, at -12 0 within a day. So the cold storage method can protect food supplies from destruction. The beetle in the southern regions is not destroyed during mild winters and can colonize storage facilities during warm times. They colonize crops and manage to produce 4-5 generations. Damaged beans lose their viability. In colonized seeds, black dots of passages and excrement are visible through the shells.
The initial drying of the grain before loading is of great importance. In good weather, the beans pulled out from the garden should lie in the sun for a few more days before opening the doors or, collected in brooms, hang in a draft on racks. For food purposes, beans are threshed and prepared for storage in winter.
How to store beans to prevent bugs
One of the main enemies of the crop is the bean weevil. These are small bugs that appear in beans at the ripening stage. Insects actively reproduce, laying larvae in the beans. It is difficult to spot the weevil, but proper preparation and storage will eliminate the insects.
Cold is destructive for bugs, but at temperatures above +5 insects actively reproduce.
To avoid this, it is advisable to put the beans in the refrigerator for the first time.
A basement, cellar or balcony are suitable for winter storage. Beans can be placed in cardboard boxes or wooden boxes lined with newspaper on the inside. Canvas bags are also used, which must be hung so that the crop receives natural ventilation.
If you find out in advance how to store beans and carefully follow all the recommendations, the beans will survive the winter well and retain all their beneficial properties. Only whole, unsprouted, mold-free fruits can be used for food.
All gardeners have long known that growing a good harvest of beans is half the battle. It is equally important to preserve it until the next season, especially if homegrown vegetables are used as seed. So, how and where to store beans in winter? You can use one of the following options:
- in fabric bags in the refrigerator or on the balcony;
- in glass jars;
- in the freezer.
Before using one of the above methods, you should prepare the legumes for storage.
Saving bean seeds at home
How to store beans for seeds in winter is a different story. Pods with intact leaves and without the slightest flaws are selected. After drying in the sun, the beans in pods are packed in a canvas bag and kept in the refrigerator until cold weather sets in. Later, the bag is taken out into the cold and hung up so that rodents do not eat it. The pods are disassembled before planting. Another way to store seeds is to sprinkle them with ash and store them in an airtight glass container. By adding a head or several cloves of garlic to the package, the safety guarantee increases.
There are several ways to store beans at home for the winter. The humidity of the surrounding air should be no more than 50%, and the temperature that stops biological development is 10, that is, before the onset of frost, the storage place is in the refrigerator. Store in linen bags, you can put a garlic head inside.
If there are a lot of beans, they can be stored in cardboard boxes or wooden boxes, but inside there should be a layer of ordinary black and white newsprint. Printing ink also prevents insects from settling in. Of course, winter storage in a cold place will guarantee the safety of the product.
Another way to preserve beans for the winter is to use heating of commercial grain. When heated in the oven to 90 0 for several minutes, the beneficial properties of the beans will be preserved, but the contents will die. After this treatment, in dry containers with airtight lids, the beans will last for more than one winter. Another way is to heat it at 10 for an hour.
The lids under which beans are stored can be glass or metal. Polyethylene - breathable. Linen storage bags must first be soaked in a saline solution and dried.
If beans are stored in a warm, open place without moisture, the beans may sprout or become moldy. Bean sprouts should not be consumed. It can be used as planting material if the time for sowing has come.
Proper storage of beans - video
If there are a lot of beans, they can be stored in cardboard boxes or wooden boxes, but inside there should be a layer of ordinary black and white newsprint. Printing ink also prevents insects from settling in. Of course, winter storage in a cold place will guarantee the safety of the product.
Preparing beans for storage
To ensure that the beans are well preserved, they are first dried. To do this, sort out the pods and put them in a dry place where they will not be exposed to direct sunlight. When all the pods turn yellow and the beans rattle slightly when shaken (about a week), they need to be husked and the beans re-examined. If holes are found, such beans are thrown away, since they may contain grain bugs that will damage the entire crop.
If you do not plan to use the beans for planting, to kill the bugs, the beans are heated for an hour in a slightly open oven.
Storing beans in the refrigerator and on the balcony
When you need to store small supplies, beans in fabric bags can be temporarily (while the weather is still warm) on the shelf in the refrigerator door. As the temperature outside drops, the bags are taken out onto the glassed-in balcony. The storage issue is simpler for residents of the private sector who have a dry storage room or shed - this is an ideal option. The beans are placed in cardboard boxes, in which holes are first made so that the beans can “breathe”. The advantages of such storage are that in a cool room the pest larvae die, and the beans do not germinate. However, this method is not very suitable for those who have open balconies - in severe frost the beans will freeze. It will also be inconvenient to store large volumes in the refrigerator.
Storing beans in the freezer
Beans can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months. This method works well for green beans. Before placing in the freezer, the pods are cut into small pieces (5 cm) and blanched for several minutes in boiling water. Then you need to let them cool and dry a little. Place the cooled green beans into bags or into small containers with a lid. Release the air from the bags and tie tightly. When storing regular beans in the freezer, do not boil them; simply wash and dry them.
