Growing BEANS in the UK????? Haricots or anything else?

[Trinity]

Hi All!

I was delighted to note that my vegetable book says that haricot beans come from growing french beans!

As a vegetarian I am dearly looking for 'beans' that we can grow in the UK (I am located in Somerset right now, although looking at moving to Northern Scotland). We need stuff that we can store over the colder months without relying on electricity to operate a freezer etc. Dried beans seems like an ideal solution.

Has anyone successfully grown and stored beans (of any sort in the UK)? Please do share any tips, advice or story here

Love
Trinity
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[Trinity]

For anyone interested, I have found some links regarding growing beans for drying in the UK:

http://www.btinternet.com/~bury_rd/Beans.htm

http://www.veganorganic.net/index.php?o ... &Itemid=53

http://www.organicgardening.org.uk/orga ... _beans.php

Would still be delighted to hear from any avid 'bean for drying' growers amongst us

Trinity

[Andy Hamilton]

I keep all my beans from the previous year, broad beans and runner beans. I don't keep them for food just replanting though. To dry them out I take them out of the pod and place them on newspaper on the dining table and just leave them for a while. In fact there have been times when they have been left on shelves, on the mantlepiece and on windowsills all around the house.

Just need a good flow of air and don't allow them to get wet, store only when bone dry. I made the mistake of putting some in a jar that were almost dry, they just went mouldy.

[Cheezy]

I grow Borlotti beans every year from Seeds of Italy. This dwarf variety:

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/product/251

is particualy good for drying, though I find it a bit on the small side. i like the normal one which completly takes over the garden!, and produces hundresd of pods.

You just leave the beans in the pods until they are very dry and brown (the pods that is), then I keep them in paper bags.

Excellent dried even better fresh.

[flower]

A very good friend of mine (who is a vegan) tells me that the very tastiest beans to dry are your bog standard runner bean.

He uses the red ones as you would kidney beans and the white as butter bean substitutes.
so when you too bored of runners to eat anymore, leave them on the plant til good and fat. Then pull up the whole plant and peg over the washing line till pretty much dry. pod them, and dry a while longer indoors to prevent mould before storing.

[sawfish]

As Flower said Runner Beans are brilliant to dry I did it for the first time this year after an unexpected massive glut of runners. They are excellent for everything all the other more usual dried beans are good for. Pate is great, beans, lemon juice, coriander, chilli, garlic, salt and pepper in a blender.

Around september when the runners are at full size and finished growing just snip the base of the plant and wait a couple of weeks before taking the pods off and shelling them. I wouldn't take the whole plant inside to dry as its incredibly difficult trying to get it untangled from the netting (if you use netting). They're such beautiful colours too if you grow mixed varieties..

Thanks to the person on the other forum who's name I forget for giving me this info.

[flower]

two things I forgot to say...

1, leave the roots in the ground to fix nitrogen

2 some varieties of runner beans can turn the water grey when you re-hydrate them... tastes fine but looks 'orrible
might be worth boiling darker ones seperately before adding to rice etc

[hedgewizard]

Garden Organic have got some good info on this. Last year we grew martok (broad beans), trail of tears (dwarf french) and black magic (runner beans) for drying. All of them worked brilliantly well, left on the plant until dry and then podded and dried further on trays in the airing cupboard. Finally, I gave them 10 minutes at 170C in the oven to kill any grubs that might be in there, and moved them to airtight jars.

Martok are fairly thin-skinned for broadies, but still a bit of work - I don't think we'll bother drying broadies for food again. Trail of tears are fantastic little fellows, need no pre-soaking and are halfway between the size of aduki and kidney beans. Black magic are HUGE (1"+) jet-black things and are really startling added to clear soup!



If you're serious about preserving food get yourself a book on the subject, there are a few out there; a Stockli dehydrator (about £100) would be a good investment too as we've dried everything from mushrooms to bananas in there (don't ask). Feel free to check out my blog too.

[skoff]

I was just looking for information on this very subject myself. Likewise based in Somerset, in the past couple of days I've germinated a half dozen Kidney beans from the larder. Probably too early to have begun but they shot up really fast - about 2 days. I will be experimenting with fava, borlotti, haricot, black eyed and anything else that I come across. Be interested to see how they come out.
On the subject of drying them - I remember my dad always had flat cardboard boxes all over the surfaces in the utility room filled with bean pods and seed-heads and all sorts. He didn't really do anything special except keep them dry and saved himself the expense of buying new. As far as I know, the only potential problem with saving seed (and beans to plant) would be if they were F1 hybrids which won't breed true.

[Trinity]

Those black coloured beans look awesome... looks like you have a brilliant stash of dried food... erm bananas?????? Is there something happening in Dorset that you are keeping secret

I spent good while in Hawaii where bananas lines the drive way and fresh produce was vibrant all year round. But for now I'll have to make do with me beans

Trinity
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