The long dark jobbie above is new to me this year - Major Cook's bean - from the Heritage Seed Library. I'm leaving them for dried use and for seed but I forgot to take the camera to the allotment so brought a bean to the camera.Of the shelled beans, the centre is Soldier, cream with a 'soldier standing to attention' shaped marking on the hilum. It's a dwarf french -again from HSL in 2008 - and one of my ten seeds must have been crossed because it produced a climbing bean with a red pod and black seeds. I saved these and grew them on in 2009. These would be the F2s which is where all the variety comes out. I collected seed from several of these and have grown some on this year. The dark seeds to the left are from the one I called Midnight. They look black but are actually a very dark indigo. Those on the right are Yoghurt. This is a large (ish) creamy coloured bean, bigger than the haricots you can buy on the shops (and lots bigger than a baked bean!) This one has produced absolutely loads and they seem to resist drought - it's been rubbish for rain and the allotment water tank has been empty for months. The other dwarf beans have struggled but Yoghurt has really gone for it. This is a dead cert to grow next year. Only a few pods of each are dry at the moment but I look forward to my winter store-cupboard including a big jar of these beauties!
The moral is - don't rogue out anything odd. Give it a chance.
Here's what my Seed Guardian beans look like as they begin to mature (Fabes de las Granja Asturianas.) Initially they looked like standard french beans, not particularly big and certainly not big enough to hold the great creamy coloured seeds I was given by the Heritage Seed Library this spring. However as you can see, as they start to swell and become lighter in colour you can see how many beans there will be.
Ignore the weeds. I find it quite easy!
7 comments:
The beans look good! How are your vermont cranberry doing? I gave some to Kathy(Skippy's Vegetable Garden) and they produced white beans with red stripes. Does soil affect the colour? All the seed I collected was raspberry coloured.
I have harvested all the soldier beans you sent. There are a couple new pods coming though. They gave a good yield, need to plant more next year. The true red cranberry beans are just start to come in now.
Weeds? Where? What weeds?
What a nice variety of beans!
I enjoy growing a variety of beans and seeing which do well for me. I've got a yellow French bean called Sonesta which I've grown for the first time this year which has done well, it will be on my list for growing again next year.
The Vermont Cranberry are doing very well Dan though there aren't any dry yet. The pods are green/red - rather like a borlotti. I'm pleased with the yield. I'll be sure to let you know how they shell out.
I've just harvested a few Soldier. I think your seson is ahead of ours by a few weeks.
They look fantastic.
As dried beans, do they require a lengthy cooking process or overnight soaking?
I soak dried beans overnight Bilbo, or if you aren't that organised (you are, I'm not!) you can boil them up for 10 minutes, leave them for an hour, change the water and then treat them as if they'd been soaked overnight. The length of time depends on a lot of things - how long you've kept them, for one. I generally allow an hour or so but they don't always take that long - sometimes half an hour. Don't add the salt till the end thoug, it toughens the skins.
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