Freezing climbing French beans

[Pottedpalm]

I haven’t grown climbing French Beans before; they grew well and the pinky pods are very pretty.
Im wondering if I have left it too late to pick and freeze them? Half the pods are still pink ( second pic) but others are paler and very dry. Too old to blanch and freeze? Any advice appreciated!

They're borlotti beans, not french beans.

You'd either eat Borlotti as very young pods, or more frequently let them dry on the plant, then shell them and store them as dried beans. I guess you could cook them and freeze them?

Have you picked them all already?

I have picked about a third of them.
I didn’t buy any borlotti beans… only climbing French ones 😥

Those are borlotti, definitely. Harvest them when the pods are dry and papery (like the left hand photo ). Don’t pick them while the pods are still lovely and red, they aren’t ready.

Some of my borlotti were labelled Climbing French with (Borlotti) in parentheses underneath. I think it was a Sarah Raven packet.

Traditional French (green) beans are picked as young green pods and eaten whole.

Don’t blanch and freeze, use fresh or dry them.

French beans and Borlotti beans are the same species, Phaseolus vulgaris. The unripe pods you should be able to eat as French beans, and therefore freeze. Try cooking and eating a few to try.

The mature bean pods won’t be palatable, so harvest the beans from them, dry and store

Thanks everyone! I hadn’t realised the two were the same; no mention of Borlotti on my packet.

Wiki says that cranberry bean is another name for borlotti. As is rosecoco.

But it’s just a variety of French bean. Originally all beans and peas were grown for their seeds. It was very much a privilege of the rich to pick and eat peas when they were young and sweet, rather than waiting till they were old and mature, more nutritious and able to be used through winter. Then of course our winter dependence on dried peas declined, and varieties were developed for eating young, followed by varieties where you could eat the pod as well. I presume that’s what happened to French beans too.