Topic: brighstone beans

[ACE]

Blagged these few Brighstone beans off of a friend. Great little beans even if they are only used for decoration in a clear glass container.

They are stringless  runners but can also be eaten as like mangetout or  haricot beans. pretty pink flowers and they look like ying yang symbols. Even the pods are purple and green mottled

I shall grow these few this year and hopefully save a load for next year for growing again and swops

[galina]

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/gardening/a-twist-in-the-tale-of-the-brighstone-bean-31884.aspx

https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/bush-dry-bean-brighstone

The latter is the Brighstone we know from the Heritage Seed Library.  A dwarf bean and the seeds look quite different from yours, Ace

Is there more than one Brighstone Bean?

[ACE]

The beans in my picture came from the daughter of a long time member of the Brighstone Horticultural Society, at least 30 years in the group. So if he is wrong there will be a lot of annoyed people in Brighstone who also grow the same. The first reference you gave was from our local rag where the 'Gardening expert' cannot even get off his backside to use a proper photo and has used a stock library picture of beans.

The American reference certainly has some of the purple colouring and could have easily be some crossed pollinated beans, perhaps  the collector picked them by mistake if he was on a seed collecting trip. The old ones we grow are nowhere as big as they seem to be. I would expect an old variety to be small like mine as they are originally a few hundred years old, before the trend for bigger crops

[Vinlander]

They also look a lot like coco bi-colour AKA pea bean. I assume that like them they are climbing french - and french beans can cross occasionally (maybe easiest in a bad year but that's another story).

I've got some pea bean crosses with purple flecks on the pods, but the beans look completely different - pale blue when fresh with markings like fancy jasper, though they go a lot darker and less interesting when dry. Mine crossed with Borlotti or more likely with Borlotti x Blue Coco, though there were also some x Helda crosses nearby too. If you only grow varieties with special characteristics you can get some really amazing mixes - and the more recognisable they are the easier to identify good flavours with good beans - I rarely have enough to have only one variety in one meal - every meal is a taste test!

Cheers.

[ACE]

Whoops, I saw my friends father last night and asked him about the beans. He says she has it all wrong, they are not Brighstone beans. But he has promised to pick me some next week. Sorry everybody got that one wrong.