I didn't start sowing tender beans till April 29th - we have had late May frosts here the last 2 years, last year on 10th - 15th and the year before on 18th - so I'm in no hurry to get them planted out. The beans above are the ones I selected from an accidental crossing I observed in some Heritage Seed Library Soldier beans. Beans are widely reported not to cross but if you garden organically and therefore have an abundance of pollinating insects, it's not uncommon. These are a decent sized cannellini type bean and are dwarf french in type. They have come true for 2 years so I'm hoping they will continue to do so. 
They are a creamy colour and I've named them Yoghurt. As I now have a good number growing, I'm starting to eat the spares from last year. This is a group of soaked beans, ready to cook as one of the ingredients of a 3 bean salad. I'm very pleased with these. They coped magnificently in last summer's drought conditions and gave me by far the best yield of any dwarf drying bean.
By the way, can someone (Radix?) cheer me by telling me that bindweed roots are a Lost Crop of the Incas? I have a magnificent haul of them dug out from the greenhouse border. They have been physically removed twice a year for 10 years - and still they come. Oh, for a recipe!
16 comments:
I'm with you on the bindweed, you'll never get rid of it, it's never ending!
No doubt someone will have a recipe for bindweed - they were cooking Japanese knotweed on Country File
I haven't started any beans off yet, Jack Frost isn't going to catch me out. I planted out my Kent Blue, that you so kindly sent me, at the weekend. I'd started them off in modules and they're growing well so far.
I'm sorry but bindweed isn't a lost inca treasure! :(
But I can tell you that it is definately a right nuisance. It practically swallowed our greenhouse on the allotment, and no matter what we did it wouldn't shift. :(
Have a good day!
Hope you get a bumper bean crop! :)
Martin
www.our-good-life.blogspot.com
My beans cross too. In the middle of my dwarf beans one vigorous climber. Purple Barlottis too.
Are you confusing bindweed with that other vigorous weed couch grass (which was dried ground and baked as a bread or a porridge in times of famine in Europe before the potato was introduced)
Those beans look lovely and tasty! Im very jealous as my beans are long gone!
I heard about the Japanese knotweed recipe GLA - I'd be scared to death of what happened to the trimmings though!
I have couch grass too
Mal. The very thick, stir-fry looking bindweed does seem like a wasted resource but I'm not going to be the one to try it! It must give you extra satisfaction to eat a weed to death though?
The beans look terrific!! Even though it's gotten frosty here already, the spent summer beans I dug in as green manure are still sprouting up.
Like the colour of that bean. I have never dried beans before. oh well it might be the next adventure for next summer.
I have bindweed too - and ground elder. Total pain to try and get rid off, but I've given up trying now and just try and control its spread instead. I've also just lost half my beans to frost - second year running and didn't learn my lesson from last year! We're right on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds and our allotments are quite exposed, so I should have known better. Great blog - love your chickens as well, I showed them to my three girls on the laptop - not sure how interested they really were but they pretend well when there are mealworms in the offing!
Hi Kim, nice to meet you. You aren't all that far from me - I'm sort of the other side of Hull!
Phew, at last someone who is on my seed-sowing timescale! I am being very cautious up here in the north, and besides don't have much indoor space for seed trays. Oh for a greenhouse!
Beans look great. I too was remarkably unimpressed with that piece on Knotweed. I never heard them say that ALL bits of knotweed, however miniscule, are controlled waste and should be disposed of as such.
Ruddy irresponsible if you ask me.
I've just looked back at my blog posts from this time lat year. It was on 13th May that we had a hard frost and I nearly lost everything. You are wise to be cautious.
You called, Madam?
You may find this amusing, although I think you're referring to Calystegia rather than Convolvulus: http://thislivelyearth.com/2010/06/18/even-bindweed-brings-gifts/
I think the rhizomes are edible, seem to recall that the Chinese eat them on occasion and that they're quite sweet - maybe I ought to try crossing them with the sweetpotato. Could be fun.....
Mine are definitely the big, white flowered Convolvulus. They do look like an ingedient of a Chinese stir fry dish but I have the gut (bad choice of words maybe) feeling that if they were nice, we'd know about them!
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