Search results

Greetings from England. Good to see you here.

Growing up as I did in the middle section of the last century, I had a father who grew no vegetables at all apart from ‘runner’ beans - P. coccineus. They were his pride and joy and we lived off them through late summer and into autumn. The climate in the midlands of England suited them very...

I think it is absolutely right that for a British person a French bean is thought of as the longer Haricot Vert type of bean, and traditionally this is the type that has been available fresh in greengrocers. I also think that the usual explanation for the term ‘French’ is that this style of...

Baked beans in tomato sauce are pretty well the only way dried beans enter British culture, as you say. They have been enormously popular over the last few decades. Traditionally marketed by Heinz. They are canned in tomato sauce. For the average British person the beans never appear without...

In UK making use of either shelled beans or dry beans is quite unusual. It's only real bean enthusiasts who are likely to use P. vulgaris in any way other than as snap (green) beans. So in effect you're right; it nearly always does imply green beans. I hope I'm not confusing things further!

In UK, P. vulgaris are often called French beans. Within French beans there are climbing beans (pole) and dwarf beans (bush). The term Runner beans usually refers to P. coccineus. The term ‘French runner bean’ doesn’t sound at all UK. Were you referring to Adam Alexander’s use of that term in...

Thank you very much for your efforts and for searching using the Wayback Machine which I hadn't encountered before. I'll just have to enjoy them for what they are - but it's always much more satisfying to know a bit about where a bean came from. But in the meantime I hope you felt better after...

Thank you, Zeedman and Meadow, for your thoughts on Astrid. My donor has now said that they came from Deaflora. I confess to having doubts as Deaflora don’t carry them at the moment, and I think there would be internet references if they’d offered them in the recent past. I agree they do have...

Has anyone come across the pole bean 'Astrid'? I was given this in a swap by a donor who labelled it as coming from Austria. So far he can't remember any more about its origin. It's prolific and produces full pods and delightful red shiny round beans. I'm impressed with it and would love to...

That is also very interesting! Thank you for carrying on the research. Curiouser and curiouser. I’ve seen it suggested that the change occurred because of some kind of social sensitivity. I’m not sure that lazy housewife is any more socially sensitive than lazy wife though!

Real Seeds in UK, and possibly others, sell ‘ Lazy Housewife’ bean. It seems to be the same bean as it’s round and white, and they reference Burpee as first offering it. I don’t know when the ‘house’ bit was adopted nor how widespread the use of that name is, but it seems clear that Lazy Wife’...

Thanks for the warning about the difficulty of harvesting good seeds. Mine are still outside growing, and still full of younger beans too. It’s impressively productive and has become a favourite. Our weather is still dry at the moment but I’ll keep an extra careful eye on them now that you’ve...

No dry pods on Lilaschecke here (east England) yet either. But not far off I think.

That will be great. I'd very much like to grow them (sooner than 2024!) based on your description, and my recent conversion to greasy beans .

@Triffid How extremely interesting! Quite a story and amazing detective work on your part. I imagine it helped a little that Dunahoo is an unusual name. And so rewarding that a really good bean has emerged from the muddle. I assume you must be the first person to grow it for the network. It...

Those are beautiful beans, Triffid. I love the pinkish colouration. Is that a photo of your own freshly harvested beans? Presumably they lose that colouring in store and end up with the more neutral tones of Bluejay77’s photo. And a great piece of research into the Japanese series of selections...

Interesting. In the UK, the name gooseberry always refers to Ribes uva-crispa and is a very commonly grown garden fruit.

I’m enjoying several of the network beans I’m growing this year. Lilashecke is a delight. It’s producing plentiful light yellow arced beans, good for eating as snap. It’s a little more yellow than the photo suggests Another one is Dow Purple Pod which raced to the tops of the canes early...

In the winter please remind me to send you some of the 'long reddish' Blackpod variant I identified last season - maybe they will be more to your liking. This year they continue to have longer pods than the original, and develop pigmentation while the pods are still young and slender. Thank...

I would just add one variety to Triffid’s excellently full list of purple podded scarlet runner beans. I’m growing one called Mrs Cannell’s Black. On the whole I don’t really enjoy the culinary qualities of purple podded runner beans. They seem to be tougher than I like before they develop their...