French Beans - see you tomorrow, hopefully!!

[tim]

I was asked which of our beans we preferred. Replied at length, only to lose it in our server switch.

Went down & sampled 4 of them - bean flavoured - pea flavoured - sweet (purple) - yuck!  Then noticed on the net that I should not eat raw beans?? But I'm still here.

Can't answer the question, because No1 Daughter put in 9 varieties & they never get tried out separately. Typical day's pick!

Me? Although you can 'doll them up', I'm not a pencil bean chap - much prefer the Hunter/Algarve type.

[tim]

[supersprout]

Good heavens, love the Hunters too - beans with biceps :)
Love raw beans too, straight off the bush :P
The prohibition is only for raw mature dried beans - boil first. Not these lovelies ;D

[amphibian]

Good heavens, love the Hunters too - beans with biceps :)
Love raw beans too, straight off the bush :P
The prohibition is only for raw mature dried beans - boil first. Not these lovelies ;D

Aren't raw purple beans also a nono?

[supersprout]

That's an interesting one!
It's the chemical in the mature bean that's iffy - red kidney beans having most of whatever it is and should NEVER be eaten uncooked. Sprouters happily eat lentils, black eye peas and chickpeas raw, but never the red kidney beans, and probably not pinto or crabeye beans either.
Fresh young French beans should be fine raw - the warning about the one about purple ones is a new one, but I still won't hesitate to eat mine raw on the way from plot to pot, can't resist ;) :)

[moonbells]

I wish!  Just got some decently-compact dwarf FBs in. I've tried 4 times this season. First lot went in and got scorched inside a week (start of June), second lot sown in pots, few yellow Berggolds came up, none of the green Safaris or pea beans. Third lot planted literally dozens in the gaps, 2" apart, and about four yellows grew, none of the greens.

Fourth attempt, getting silly now, planted 60 more (!) of two different varieties (Opera and Tendergreen) in large modules of JI seed compost (as against multipurpose) and have got loads of them inside a week with really strong root systems.

They were planted out this lunchtime - hope they cope as it's about to become hot again. If this lot goes I'll cry.

moonbells

[Svea]

i feel for you, moonbells!. i love ,y french beans, i think i am rather growing too much this year, but there is always the freezer, no? good luck!

[moonbells]

Yes Svea, thank goodness for the freezer. Last year I had hundreds of FBs and we froze them, ate loads and we made it to Christmas with capacity to spare. Ditto carrots! This year... dead loss on both.

Funny old world - how different the years can be! (The carrots were being munched by slugs: I finally caught one grazing the tiny seedlings on Saturday, and introduced it fatally to my pocket knife. Though the nice row which had come up has now been destroyed. Luckily the new raised and completely meshed bed hasn't got any large slugs in, yet. I'm ever hopeful!)

moonbells

[jennym]

I find Cobra and Blue lake, climbing french beans, have been pretty good even in this hot weather. Sometimes I let some of them go to seed, and harvest the beans inside as haricot type beans, usually freeze them though. The whole beans, green, I tend to chop into little pieces for freezing, find them more versatile to use that way, and they seem to hold their texture better.

[tim]

Must remember that!