From the left, Early Warwick, Soldier, Bird's Egg and Cherokee Trail of Tears. These are just a few of my bean harvest drying for seed. They are so pretty I could just sit and play with them! I have a good haul of Yin-yang too. They were planted by the late keeper of my new plot, so I am making sure they are harvested and used. I have some up in my seed store from last year but due to restraints on space I didn't get any sown. I shall eat last year's bounty now, and sow some of the new ones. 
These are the Bird's Egg beans as they come from the plant, when harvested for shelly beans. They are beautiful on their own but also make a lovely addition to a casserole. As they dry they go purple and crisp and can then be shelled out for seed (or winter use as rehydrated dried beans). They are my favourite shelly bean, closely followed by Early Warwick, a dwarf bean which only comes second because it is slightly smaller than Bird's Egg. I'm growing a good lot of each - and of Soldier, next season.
9 comments:
Lovely lovely beans!!!
I grew Bird's Egg this year - aren't they pretty? But they were topped by The Bridgewater Bean (my lucky dip packet from the HSL this year) - similar to Bird's Egg but they start off as green and purple stripy pods instead of red.
Like you I'm going to eat some of the seed store beans this winter.
Celia
Nothing wrong with playing with yer beans!
I've just started getting some of the pods off for final drying - all the newspaper sheets which WERE covered in various drying pea pods, and now covered with various drying bean pods.
It's easy this year as it's been so dry - no worries about rotting here.
I always think that beans are so pretty they should be jewelery or beading on baskets or something. Good thing they're also delicious. It looks as though you're set for the year.
Your bird's egg beans look like Borlotti beans. They are delicious, aren't they?
Hello Vegetable Heaven from Allotment Heaven, I am so impressed with your beans, they are beautiful to look at and I'm sure delicious to eat. I may have a go at some different ones myself next year. I did buy some reduced Berlotti bean plants (don't usually buy veg plants) they were almost a giveaway price, but they never came to anything, so much for a bargain. Lesson learnt !
Hello Allotment Heaven! Just popped in to your blog - great read and I'll be back. There's usually a reason when they nearly give plants away. Beans are so easy as long as you remember not to put them out till after the frost (I grow in pots or modules, not by direct sowing - more control then.)
Greetings, fellow Chicken Lover. Birds egg are probably a Borlotti; they are said to have been grow in England since 1825. They are so versatile. I got a higher yeild from them than from a commercial borlotti seed last year.
I have lost count of how many different varieties you have grown and saved . . .
There's something so exciting about shelling dried beans. So shiny and new, just like conkers! I can't help picking them up and bringing them home.
Funnily enough I did bring a conker home the other day. My friend with the 3 year old son saw me picking it up and gave me an old fashioned look!
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