With Galina on this, I grow a lot (25+ varieties) of shelling french bean and my normal technique is to let the first few pods dry out on the plant, but that gives me a chance to note the point when the pods go slightly leathery... that's the point to havest the rest and just tip them into the freezer.... I'm growing Borlotti this year though I haven't for a few years but realised that the last time I grew it I was on a different site.... I find it is quite a long-season plant and although the crop can be huge if it gets decent conditions in September/October there are plenty of earlier season alternatives. If you want a rose bean (like borlotti) then I'd recommend Bridgewater, Polish Climber, or Bird Egg, probably in that order. Polish is the earliest, but doesn't crop as well as Bridgewater in my experience, Bird Egg is a slightly bigger bean but a bit later, though not as late as Borlotti. Other good shelling beans would be San Antonio (a climbing rather plumper "Soldier" type), Cherokee Trail of Tears (a black kidney bean), Bosnian Black-Seeded Greenpod (climbing turtle bean), Neabel's Ukrainian (a piebald kidney bean) and Giganda (not a french bean, but a runner bean grown for the massive white seeds in the pods, don't grow it near runner beans they'll cross pollinate and next year you'll have ruined both your seed strains)... there are loads of others, if you like canellini for instance then Blue Lake left to ripen up is brilliant, and there are any number of dwarfs that crop OK-ish...
chrisc
