Glycine max (soybean)
Our cultivar was originally imported from the USA and has been
grown in NZ for at least 10 years.It is not the rather ordinary performing ‘Sonya’ that is widespread in NZ so if you want to try a different clone this is the one. For harvesting for Edemame, allow the bushes to grow until the first couple of pods show a bit of yellow and then cut off the whole bush.
There will usually be up to 50 pods (mostly with 2-3 seeds) but half of these will have immature pods that are not worth using.
Snip the fattest ones off individually and blanche them (4
minutes) in a big pot of very salty (3%) water. Snipping allows the salt to penetrate and flavour the beans. Remove the pods quickly from the hot water and cool an a bench top or similar.
Avoid rinsing as this removes the salt. Pods store in the fridge for about a week and can be frozen but they are not as good as
freshly cooked pods.
Germination
Seeds best germinated in October if grown in pots for
transplanting out. Direct sown best in November. For the best
harvest, only two pots of 4-5 seeds sown every week will give
abundant edamame in late summer and autumn. Planting a pot
with multiple seedlings works better than single plants as they
tend to hold themselves upright better. Save one plant for next
years seeds!
20 seeds/packetApproximate minimum seed count per pack
20 seeds/packet
Usage
Snip the fattest ones off individually and blanche them (4
minutes) in a big pot of very salty (3%) water. Snipping allows the salt to penetrate and flavour the beans. Remove the pods quickly from the hot water and cool an a bench top or similar.
Avoid rinsing as this removes the salt. Pods store in the fridge for about a week and can be frozen but they are not as good as
freshly cooked pods.