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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Tulipa on September 20, 2005, 17:01:23
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I have had quite a good crop of painted lady runners this year, but some have been quite tough unless I pick them when they are small.
As I can't get my offspring to eat them I wondered what other people grow. Would I be better with french beans - do they go stringy?
What should I grow next year?
I'm sorry, lots of questions but I have been wondering how to grow something more attractive to my children. Thank you
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Well we dislike Runner beans altogether and much prefer French beans. We grow the ordinary green, then a yellow one and finally a lovely purple podded variety (Sadly it goes dark green on cooking) All of these are available as either dwarf or climbing varieties. We find them less inclined to go stringy and of a much finer taste.
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If I had to pick it would be French Beans.
They crop brilliantly (the Prince I find great), come in a variety of colours as mentioned by Palustris above, (and yes I agree, wish they would stay purple! ;D ) and they freeze far better than runners. They seem to do better in a drought too.
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Wow, this is just the sort of replies I needed! So I could grow them like runners but get a much nicer bean. Everyone would be happy! Thank you, thank you.
I reckoned now was the best time to ask this question while they are or just have been croppping. I like the sound of different colours too. Middle son wouldn't eat anything green when he was younger, maybe he would have managed a 'purple' bean!
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So climbers or dwarf frenchies ? I grew climbing flat beans this year and they were good but still went tough in the end. My dwarfs were very curly where they touched the ground so cimbers could be the thing next year ....
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i grew drawf french beans this year - i think they are earlier cropping than climbing ones so you might want to mix and match them - i will. growing yellow hildora and purpl,e teepee (drawfs) for early crops (though my hildoras are still going) and a.n.other climber, along with dwarf cannellini and kidney beans, and borlotti beans for drying :)
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French. I love runners, don't get me wrong, but I do find French beans so much more versatile, not so fussy at growing, and great when eaten really small, or really big and fat! The kids eat them when they are small also, a big bonus!
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French here too. Like runners as well though - very tasty :) I loved the dwarf yellow french bean we grew on our lotty this year (Sonesta) Fantastic taste and great hot or cold and it just kept on producing zillions of beans. I like them hot with a dollop of mayo on the side or cold with a herby vinaigrette (tossed in it) :)
Climbing french beans - I've grown Markant and they are still going great guns so are my Scarlet Emporer but they are tough as they get big :( But everyone on here tells me they make a good soup and I can use them in stews, or dry them so no waste :)
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Through personal experience I would grow french beans (Stringless) more than runners as they are easier to grow and keep better on the plants. (They dont go tough as quick as runners do.)
The_Snail
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French? Yes - more versatile - not much flavour, but take on other flavours. And freeze better. I find most yellow ones very flat & disappointing. And don't freeze well. And why grow purple if they cook green - as Eric says?
Runners? So - if they are the traditional ones - & if you can't pick them when they are 1/2" across & bendy - next time use 'stringless'. Out of 2 X 20' rows, half stringless - we've probably had a couple of dozen which had to be de-stringed. It's a matter of this & that.
And yes - a flavour of their own, which doesn't fit in with all your stir-fries etc.
Hunter? No one ever mentions them?? Early, self-fertile & always tender. But they only come in green!!
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Tim, I don't mind if they are green, it is the texture and taste I am more interested in. I want to convert them all to liking beans in my house! I imagine french beans would be good in curry dishes?
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I love runners and French beans equally. Although runners are a bit squeaky...
Runners are hardier than French beans - especially if it's damp and/or cold at either end of their season. French beans are better for drying, though. I'd always have a climber rather than a dwarf for yield per sq. foot.
Beans glorious beans...
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My favourites are Cobra climbing French bean (round podded stringless) although it always amazes me how many beans I get from such weedy looking plants. As already said, they do suffer when it gets cold - I start them off in pots or Rootrainers, around early May, and plant them out at end of May. I do grow runner beans, and tend to pick loads for the first few weeks to freeze, then let the beans get really big and soon I'll be picking, shelling and freezing just the beans from inside.
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Tulippa - yes - MJ's recipe - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/beans.jpg
But see my mini-blog for the Hunters. Very versatile.
And don't always chop beans up - the young ones are much more fun whole?
Agree on Cobra.
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I tried the dwarf French bean 'Aiguillon' this year. As someone who grows her veg in pots, I have to say this was far more successful than the runners I grew in previous years.
G xx
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I second cobras they climb are self fertile, g.ood croppers and stringless..
cheers Jim
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I forgot to mention dwarf french bean Delinel - excellent flavour, get loads and loads of beans. I always sow about 5 in holes about 3" deep and about 9" apart. They don't seem to mind being crowded, and the growth keeps the moisture in the soil and the weeds down.
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Well I grow both types. The runners are ok but I prefer French dwarf beans for taste, This year I grew Emorma runner beans they cropped well but not as good as my French dwarf, I have tried a few types of French Dwarf The newer varieties like The Prince and Masterpiece I found poor in cropping compared with "Canadian Wonder" which I find the best. This particular vareity used to be very popular but many seedsmen dont stock it any more, If anyone want to get seed for Canadian Wonder contact JW Boyce. Bush Pasture, Fordham. Ely Cambs. CB7 5JU
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I fear I may be in the minority here, I love runner beans and think they freeze far better than French beans. Having said that I grow french beans and have been very impressed with the dwarf one, Opera, this year. Great smooth, straight, fine beans with good flavour.
I also tried a yellow one, Kinghorn Wax, but we did not like the texture.
For runners I grew Desiree this year and we had a great crop, good yield and not stringy. It was not a straight bean which made it harder to shred but we are enjoying it so far. Freezes very well.
I swear by a bean stringer when cooking runners:
(http://www.alacook.co.uk/media/KRISK_lrg.jpg)
Jerry
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Has anyone tried the long skinny Asian beans ? Are they Kenya beans? I have eaten them and they are really good but don't know if they would grow here.
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must say i was disappointed with my canadian wonder beans. have let them grow on for podded beans now.
i think i didnt get on with the fact they were flat - how do you know when you should pick them? at least with round podded beans you know, and if there is colour (yellow) as well - bonus i say! that's my excuse and i stick with it ;D
tim, grow purple for fun and makes easier to see against the foliage? purple teepee hold their beans above the foliage also, great for picking. :)
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Has anyone tried the long skinny Asian beans ? Are they Kenya beans? I have eaten them and they are really good but don't know if they would grow here.
When you say Kenya bean, do you mean like in the supermarket? because if so Cobra are similar.
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Do you mean 'yard long beans', Baggy? If so - no!
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Kenyan beans are the really thin anorexic ones which supermarkets love to have in their expensive trimmed overpackaged displays.
For all that, I like them. So I grow Safari (Sutton's) which is a Kenyan bean and crops pretty much all season. I've still got beans coming off them and they were started off direct planted under bottle cloches way back in May.
I've tried climbing Cobra and can't recommend them. They were dreadful in my patch!
I also love Berggold which is a fatter yellow round pod with a distinctively different taste. But Sir still likes them. Given his reaction to anything green is usually that of a 3 year old boy, the fact he eats beans is a distinct plus... so I grow loads.
Runners I grow for me. The taste is nicer. I too tried Painted Lady last year which were pretty but didn't get terribly long before they turned woody at an astonishing rate. This year I reverted to Enorma, which really are, but you get a few days' grace on picking before they go woody. I made an effort this season to pick before they got big, and it has really made a difference. With Enorma they are still about 10" long before their sides need to be trimmed. You can snap them into inch pieces and cook/freeze the lot.
moonbells
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What about those dreaded slugs. I have fed thousands of the little darlings with my trial of beans. Put the seed in ground and they just munched em as soon as they appeared. Put in as little plants and at least half of them survived.
I kind of love that feeling when the sun is shining and you pick your runners in the shade of em. It's just one of those moments I look forward to!!! :D
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I grew climbing french bean 'Blue Lake' this year - huge crop over a seemingly endless period, delicious small and dainty or fat and crunchy. never been a fan of runners i'm afraid.
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I love french beans too!
This year I am growing Blue Lake and Cobra, and they are just starting to really crop well now. I particularly like the cobra, loads of long slender pods.
Also have Purple Teepee (thanks Doris Pinks!) and Hildora (yellow) which have tasted lovely - well what the slugs left me tasted nice ::)
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Used to grow dwarf beans but nowadays it's always climbing French Beans for us - we like runner beans but space is limited and prefer the French. Way top of my list for flavour and abundance is Blue Lake - have twice tried Cobra but the results weren't great. Also grew Yellow climbers this year and tho pretty tasty and very attractive I will stick with the Blue Lake next year (space again!!)
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Definitely French for me - well, eye-talian ::), as it's Borlottis for me from now on! Both bush and climbing varieties do well on my plot. They are yummy green (like French) and when full leave the pods for fresh or dried beans. I like a bean that works hard ;) and they are good looking too ;D
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Kenya beans are very tender ans flat thin things. I like them but have never grown them yet! Looks like something to try next year :) I suppose they would be nice raw in a salad? I will have to dig out my seed catalogues (no pun intended :D) and have a look.
The_Snail
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I just want to say thank you to everyone for all the help and advice in this thread, I shall have to read through again and see which beans will be best, definitely french I think! Hopefully the whole family will eat them too!
Thank you once again, you have all been so helpful.
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I started my beans this year a la Tim's advice ofchitting them on wet kitchen roll and will do so from not on - brilliant idea. I then planted them on into plastic cups from poundland and then onto lotty when big enough. I thought Kenya beans were drinking straw thick and over 12 inches long. That's the ones in the asian shops I meant. Thanks for the advice. Iwill try climbing french too next year.
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I will continue to grow French and Runners as I have found two more veg that my son will actually eat (its not 4, French, Runners, peas and carrots - he doesn't even like sweetcorn) and as he obviously like bean pods, intend to increase the varieties next year. My personal favourite is probably now French beans but I still love Runners (just not quite as many as I grew this year)
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For dwarf French, try Purple Teepee: they do go dark green in the pan, but I always get a very good yield from them. And the flowers are very pretty.
Instead of runners, what about borlottis ? Instead of leaving the beans to mature, you can use the pods, and even the bigger ones don't seem to get as stringy as runners. But they lose the pink blotches, and end up green as well.
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Hi all,
I grow both, the runners for flavour and the french for cooking. I grew Galaxy runners this year and they were terrible, most disappointing - went woody quickly, slow to start and generally pretty weedy. Last years Painted Lady were better although not brilliant.
The French, which were dwarf, were difficult to germinate and kept getting 'slugged' but still cropped well when they got going, although the slugs still got to the beans on a regular basis.
So, next year, I'm going to try climbing French and Borlotti ( an A4A convert) with a few runners for me as the family are now completely disillusioned with them.
Cheers :)
RosieM
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Nobody in my family likes runners, climbing French are the thing. A few wigwams provide all we need.
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I'd like to add another vote for COBRA - climbing french bean. I haven't bothered with runners this year and haven't missed them (apart from the flowers). I do find Cobra quite difficult to get started, they hate being planted out too early and in fact my best ones this year are from seed planted directly outside in early June after earlier failures. Nevertheless, its worth effort, they crop heavily, delicious long tender buttery beans, still harvesting now.
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Much prefer runners although I grow both, my choice for runners is Kelvedon stringless, good cropper and tender with a good taste. There are better tasting varieties e.g. Desiree, but I found Kelvedon the best all rounder. Strange but I find runners much easier to grow than french beans, from the previous posts I guess I'm doing something wrong. Poor germination rate for french beans.
MikeB
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You're not alone, I had lousy germination rates for French beans this year, I tried sprouting them on a damp flannel and they swelled up and grew BLUE MOULD :( but the borlottis from Seeds of Italy did well ;D.
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then let the beans get really big and soon I'll be picking, shelling and freezing just the beans from inside.
Jennym's quote
I didn't realise that the French and runner beans that have gone too big to be eaten in their pods are edible as such. Presumably they are cooked like broad beans? What do they taste like and do they have to be soaked if they have dried out a little. I have far too many beans that have gone over and there is a limit as to how many I will need for next year.
My runners were Thompson & Morgan Summer Medley. They have different coloured flowers giving a unique 3 colour blend. The varieties are separated within the packet and consist of Lady Di, Sunset and Desiree. They not only brightened up the veggie bed but did not go stringy and were delicious. I also grew Blue Lake French climbers.
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Yes, cook them like broad beans, but they taste better.
If they dry out, you will (as with most beans) need to soak and then boil for at least 20 minutes.
That Medley sounds nice. Might try that.
Blue Lake are my next favourite after Cobra. :)
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Thanks jennym. I will pick all my old beans tomorrow, shell them and cook them for our evening meal.
Regarding French climbers, I might give cobra a try next year even though a lot of people on this site have not had much success with them. I will grow Blue Lake as well though in case the Cobra beans let me down.