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~ FRENCH BEAN Seed: POLE BEANS~
Incidentally, we found that these make a great decorative feature if grown all together, and its a fun project for younger members of the family. As always, here are the most productive & tastiest beans we have been able to find. We hope you will enjoy them too!
When to sow beans?
For the earliest production, sow bush varieties. Climbing varieties take a little longer to start producing, but will then carry on over a much longer season, giving a higher yield overall. We always sow a row of bush beans to start us off, then a big bed of climbers to last us right through the summer. If you prefer to only grow bush beans, then we would recommend making two or three sowings at three week intervals.
We can see why the Cherokees wanted to keep it! 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/Dry. Tall, purple flowers, rounded green/ red pods. Black seed. Order BnCT - 70 seeds £1.75
It is also particularly tasty, and nice to eat raw even when large. Other than that it is very early and productive, being completely covered with long crunchy purple pods! (NB the purple colour turns to green on cooking.) Purple pods. Early Pole Snap. Tall, purple flowers, rounded purple pods. Order BnVI - 80 Seeds £1.65
'Coco
Sophie' Flat-Podded Pole Bean Its a tall climbing bean - with very flat pods. No, it's not a runner bean - it really is a French Bean (which we much prefer, and find easier to grow) that is just very wide and flat. The reason that it is really great though, is not the shape of the pods, or the fact that they're stringless, but because the pods have a unique & wonderful buttery texture when cooked. All gone! No more now until 2009, sorry.
There is a long tradition of the abbeys growing a lot of their own food, and exchanging seeds between each other. This bean has been grown at several abbeys for many years, and this strain was originally from West Malling Abbey in Kent. The seed we are offering here was kindly grown for us at the Abbey of St Cecilia in the Isle of Wight - we'll leave the description to Sister Anslema: "One of the star attractions is that it never seems to go stringy even towards the end of the season, even under drought conditions. In fact we have found that when watering had totally stopped - thinking it was the end of the season( beginning of October), then beans still kept being produced. The taste is most agreeable; they make a chubby 5” or more bean. Thickish but flat. Wonderful for seeds and cooking. " We swapped the beans for all sorts of other seeds to grow in the abbey gardens. Just 60 packets available this year. Order BnMC - small pack of 30 very rare seeds £1.80
~ BUSH BEAN Seed~ We have added a few new ones - chosen from our trials
this summer .
When cooked they have a smooth buttery taste . We particularly like this one cooked, rather than raw. (If you want a bean that is particularly good raw, then try the Cupidon.) Bush Snap with straight round yellow pods. (i.e. a normal wax-podded type) Order BnMI - 200 seeds £1.59
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This was one of our best discoveries last year. It's a wonderful bush bean that produces a huge number of tender dark 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. This is actually a dual-purpose bean -the pods are a
filet type so if you like it can be picked very small and eaten that
way. But the beans also stay completely stringless as it gets to full size and it makes a fantastic normal French bean. This one's flavour is particularly good! Green pods. Early/Maincrop Bush , long cropping. Order BnCU - 150 seeds £1.69
~ Saving Bean Seed ~
The physical seed-saving is easy, but the need for isolation
(to keep the seed true to type) depends on the species: French Beans don't usually cross with each other, so you can save seed from several varieties without worry. Runner Beans DO cross very easily, so only grow one type if you want to keep the seed. Broad Beans also cross A LOT and are hard to keep for seed as you need to isolate them from others with 1/2 a mile or so. 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! |
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Seeds are only supplied to members of our Seed Club. Membership costs 1p per annum. When we process your order, you will be charged for |