MENU

~ FRENCH BEAN Seed ~

plant picture

This section of the catalogue is one we work hard on -we have fun trying to find a whole range of different colours - super decorative if grown all together, and its a good project for younger members of the family. As always, here are the most productive & tastiest we've been able to find. We hope you will enjoy them too!

When to sow beans?

Small screen: Turn your device sideways to view sowing calendar.



= normal sowing & harvest time = also possible depending on conditions

For the earliest crop, sow bush beans. Climbing beans crop a little later, but will then carry on over a much longer season, giving a higher yield overall. We sow some bush beans to start us off, then a big run of climbers to last us right through the summer.

If you only grow bush beans, then make two or three sowings at three week intervals to give a longer harvest.

You can sow your beans direct in the ground, but we get better results if we start them off in trays or pots, which lets us keep them away from mice, and also means that we can give them a bit of heat.


~ CLIMBING or POLE BEANS ~

plant picture

'Cherokee Trail of Tears' Pole Bean

This bean was originally from the native North American Cherokee people. In 1838 they were driven out of their homelands in the state of Georgia by the US government to make room for more European settlers , a forced march known as the 'Trail of Tears'. This bean is one of their heirlooms they managed to keep with them and has been passed on from generation to generation ever since.

We can see why the Cherokees valued it so much! It is incredibly prolific, cropping over a long season. We plant lots each year for our own use & feedback from all of you is always positive.

Early Pole Snap/Drying bean. Tall, purple flowers, rounded green/ red pods. Black seed.

approx 70 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture

'Lazy Housewife' Pole Bean UNIQUE FAT BUTTERY BEANS

A prolific bean introduced by W. Atlee Burpee and Co in 1885 - from their original description: "the pods are green, entirely stringless, of extra fine flavor, exceedingly rich and buttery when cooked."

This is a late-cropping bean, so you definitely need to grow another type as well for the start of the season. But the beans are incredible; they have these huge fat white seeds that taste fantastic - all soft and buttery - when boiled. The pods stay stringless for a long time and you get a lots of them -it's just great. This was Ben's favourite bean in 2016.

In 1907 this was judged to be almost the very best flavoured bean on the market (sadly the one single variety that beat it is now extinct so we can't offer it.)

approx 55 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture

'Cosse Violette' Purple Pole Bean

A really vigorous early bean with purple flowers, stems & pods. (Note: the purple colour turns to green on cooking.

The special thing about these is that they stay stringless even to a big size, so it doesn't matter if you miss some or go away for a few weeks in the middle of the season. Lots of people have written in to say how much they like it.

Tall, with purple pods that stay stringless even when big.

approx 75 Seeds £

Stock:


plant picture‘Neckargold’ Yellow (usually) Pole Bean

A delicious tender yellow climbing bean.  Neckargold grows really tall and gives large numbers of long beans that start pale green and ripen to glowing yellow.

Even the plants show up the colour, with bright yellow stems. The yield of beans from this variety is excellent, and they stay stringless even up to 8 inches long, staying tender for longer than other varieties.

It is later than our other beans, definitely mid season, but this is useful to extend your bean crop after the others start to trail off.

IMPORTANT NOTE - A fantastic bean, but for a few people each year the beans stay green, and don't go yellow. We've checked, and there was definitely no mix-up - it is simply a reaction to certain soil or climate conditions.

We thought about dropping it , but so many people raved about it - it is such a good bean, so very productive and tasty. We have reduced the price to reflect the (small!) chance of getting tasty green beans rather than tasty yellow beans.

Yellow, tasty, stringless, good yields of long beans. Beware may come out green in some conditions!

80 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture'Abundance’ Green Pole Bean

This variety lives up to its name. A really good bean from our trials in 2012, Abundance is early-cropping and makes large numbers of slightly flattened pods.

The flavour is excellent and we like them so much that we've added them to our home garden bean patch every year.

Large crops of green, flattened pods.

approximately 80 seeds £

Stock:


plant pictureplant picture

Coco Sophie’ Flat Pole Bean RARE

A tall climbing bean from the late 1700s. With very flat pods, it looks like a runner, but really isn't, it's a proper french bean.We love this bean because it has an absolutely wonderful buttery texture when cooked and an excellent flavour.

After three hundred years, it became commercially unavailable in 2006. We brought this rare bean back, starting with a small sample from our seedbank. Not available every year, but if you like it - as we think you will - it's very easy to keep your own seed following the instructions supplied.

Beautiful white seeds, large buttery green pods.

48-50 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture

'Princess’ Flat-podded Pole Bean VERY RARE

This wonderful bean was recommended to us by Camilla Plum, seed collector and celebrity gardener from Denmark. She sent a few seed from her collection and explained that it was a very old variety that is no longer in circulation, and that it was unique because the pods stay tender for ages on the plant, even when they get fat and the beans have filled out.

We tried it here in Wales and it was really good with exceptionally tasty, big flattened pods.

Seed not available every year, so again do save your own for future use if you like it.

aaprox 40 seeds, organic £

Stock:



~ BUSH BEAN Seed~

Ideal for an early crop, and the best for more exposed sites or
if you don't want to be bothered with making supports.

plant picture
'Castandel' Green Bush Bean NEW

An excellent green bush bean from France chosen for exceptional earliness and productivity. Very tasty too, and it makes so many beans, we just love it! Stringless and tender pods produced in large numbers , this is our reccommendation for a normal green bean.

Long green pods. A really good early bush bean.

approximately 100 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture'Maxidor' Yellow Bush Bean

An excellent yellow bush bean that makes really large numbers of fat yellow pods on compact plants.

A long-standing favourite and the one we plant every year for our own kitchen - large yields, they keep their yellow colour after cooking, and look really pretty on the plate or in a salad, with a particularly good flavour.

Excellent bush bean making lots of fat yellow pods.

approximately 120 seeds £

Stock:



plant picture "Marvel of Piemonte" Stripey Bush Bean (HEAVY CROPPING)

This bush bean from north Italy is chosen for its amazing appearance - the pale greeny-yellow pods have purple stripes!

Also early to crop and properly stringless. It has a really good buttery texture when cooked, and we have discovered it also holds well on the plant and doesn't go stringy or tough for ages, even if you miss some when picking.

Flat pods, streaked with purple, on a yellow background, great flavour.

approximately 90 seeds £

Stock:



plant picture
Admires' Flat Bush Bean DELICIOUS

An absolutely delicious flat-podded dwarf french bean. The pods do look like a runner bean but don’t be fooled, it really is a French Bean & as such much quicker and easier to grow. This one got rave feedback in our taste tests.

Early and very productive, with very tender pods.

approximately 100 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture

'Purple Queen' Bush Bean

This is stunningly productive - in our trials it was almost silly how the plants were laden with beans - the picture shows just one branch of one plant!

They are beautiful; with purple pods, flowers and stems, and the beans are easy to find when picking as they stand out against the foliage.

Very vigourous plants, make lots of delicious beans.

approx 80-90 seeds £

Stock:



~ FILET BUSH BEAN Seed~

Filet beans are a gourmet dish: picked small, lightly steamed and served with butter. They can be left to grow full size as well.


plant picture

'Dior' Yellow Filet Bush Bean

This new addition to the catalogue is an early, yellow filet. The plants are small yet make a LOT of slender & tender pods, in an excellent bright yellow colour. As the beans are slim you only need to cook them very briefly, preserving the colour and flavour. A real treat!

Pick small as a filet or leave to get bigger (if you can resist eating them all straight away)

generous packet of approximately 150 seeds, organic £

Stock:


plant picture'Cupidon' Filet Bush Bean

A filet-type, with long slender pods. An exquisite variety that produces a huge number of tender thin green pods all summer, starting early, and continuing cropping well after the others have finished. It has a particularly good flavour used raw in salads. The beans also stay stringless as they get to full size and it makes a good normal french bean, with a particularly good flavour raw.

Sadly, it does not make many seeds and this is unfortunately reflected in the price/packet size  - but if you can afford it, it is a fantastic bean.

A special, gourmet early/maincrop filet variety.

about 80 seeds £

Stock:



~ DRYING / SHELLING BEAN Seed~

Drying / Shelling beans are for harvesting dry beans to eat, not the pods. They have been selected for maximal seed production and the pods are often thin and stringy - they’re not the bit we eat. Instead they produce large yields of nutritious seeds.



plant picture

Jacobs Cattle Gold (BUSH, DRY)

A beautiful gold/white splotched bush bean, named after Jacobs cattle in the Bible. The original stock for this variety was obtained from the Passamaquoddy people of Maine - it is a widely adapted variety for dry bean seed production, and yields can be exceptional. Great winter staple for soups and chilli.

When we first got this, there was just one commercial seed grower left, and he has now stopped producing it. So we are maintaining what we can when there is room in our production schedule, with a just few small 'starter packets' available this year. If you like it, do consider saving your own seed to help keep this heritage variety alive.

Beautiful drying beans with a delicious flavour, does well for us in Wales.

Small starter packet (rare!) of approximately 40 seeds, organic £

Stock:


plant picture

Yin Yang(BUSH, DRY)

These are so beautiful we had to add them to the catalogue! An excellent dwarf bean for baking, casseroles and soups. Extremely productive 15" tall plants are widely adapted and make beautiful black & white beans.

Although really for drying, can be picked very young as a green bean.

Small packet (rare!) of approximately 45-50 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture

Lamon Borlotto (CLIMBING, VERY BIG SEEDS, DRY)

A rare type of vine borlotti bean, which we have chosen for its massive seeds. As with all drying beans, the pods aren't the bit you eat - they have been bred to put all their effort into making fat buttery seeds.

The plants grow to about 6ft and the pods are really pretty too, with heavy red splashes on a pale yellow-green background. Quite early to harvest, as well!

Huge seed are delicious freshly shelled out, or dried and stored.

Small packet (rare!) of approximately 35-40 large seeds £

Stock:


plant picture

Stregonta (BUSH, DRY)

An early bush borlotti bean from Italy, colourful pods with pinky-red stripes on a pale cream background. Excellent shelled fresh or used dried. Ready in about 70 days from germination.

Seeds are prettiest when shelled out fresh - when they have stong red spashes - and dry to a darker tan colour.

Small packet (rare!) of approximately 50 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture plant picture

Taylors Dwarf Horticultural Bean (BUSH, DRY)

This is a drying bean from USA in the early 1800’s with pods that have quite pale red stripes on a cream background. One of the beans that fueled American prairie cooking at the time, it makes excellent refried beans (add some of our locoto chilli pepper for extra kick!) or baked beans, as well as soups and stews.

It has a reputation for being quite reliable , tolerating brief wet and cold spells better than one would expect.

Small packet (rare!) of approximately 50 seeds £

Stock:


plant picture

Einons Black Bean (BUSH, DRY)

A productive and resilient drying bean. Small tasty black beans ideal for chilies, soups & stews. A lovely variety given to us by Ann Owen of “Einion’s Garden” in mid Wales.

Did very well for us, as it has been selected for Welsh conditions for years.

Rare! Approximately 45- 50 seeds, organic £

Stock:



 

~ Vegetable Seed-SAVING - HOW TO SAVE your own Bean Seed ~

plant picture

The physical seed-saving is easy, but the need for isolation (to keep the seed true to type) depends on the species:


Also, be sure that you don't plant types with similar-coloured seeds next to each other,
otherwise you'll not be sure which plant they come from if they all grow tangled together.
More detailed seed-saving instructions are included with your seeds, so you can do all this yourself at home.