Tweet
Some of these are French Climbing Beans and some are runners but we treat them all the same, we either eat them young or early mature or let them dry out on plant and eat the seed inside after they have been dried
Algarve - Best tasting runner type bean IMO. Flat, stringless and great cropper
Blue Lake - Just like french beans from the shop but I find those dull so cant be bothered to do them again. Heavy cropper though.
Carminat - Purple french bean type. Taste really good but I go off them as they get bigger. They lose colour on cooking but I'm pretty sure there's a way of retaining as much colour as possible like quick blanching and using them in salads or sticking something in the cooking water. If you cook them with other types, they get a bit darkened by the purple water.
Jiminez - Borlotti style bean. If eating the whole pod then pick them very young before the seeds get too bulbous. A lot slower than borlotti lingua di fuoco. They look green with red flecks and the red becomes more prominent as it ages on the plant. Taste similar to borlotti too
Borlotti Lingua di fuoco - as above but grows quicker
merveille de venise - yellow, stringless, flat beans (until the seeds start really growing). Taste fine and crop well but beans form later than the rest.
Benchmark - Really long traditional runners. Very impressive size on them. Tastes like a runner bean
Algarve - Best tasting runner type bean IMO. Flat, stringless and great cropper
Blue Lake - Just like french beans from the shop but I find those dull so cant be bothered to do them again. Heavy cropper though.
Carminat - Purple french bean type. Taste really good but I go off them as they get bigger. They lose colour on cooking but I'm pretty sure there's a way of retaining as much colour as possible like quick blanching and using them in salads or sticking something in the cooking water. If you cook them with other types, they get a bit darkened by the purple water.
Jiminez - Borlotti style bean. If eating the whole pod then pick them very young before the seeds get too bulbous. A lot slower than borlotti lingua di fuoco. They look green with red flecks and the red becomes more prominent as it ages on the plant. Taste similar to borlotti too
Borlotti Lingua di fuoco - as above but grows quicker
merveille de venise - yellow, stringless, flat beans (until the seeds start really growing). Taste fine and crop well but beans form later than the rest.
Benchmark - Really long traditional runners. Very impressive size on them. Tastes like a runner bean
Comment