2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[flowerbug]

"Frenching" with green beans means cutting off the tips.

never heard that term applied in that context before. haha. interesting...

 

[flowerbug]

Are dried beans more likely to be purchased in a store, or are they just not really part of the food culture? Admittedly, though Canada is a large international legume exporter, the average diet here doesn't contain them in any significant way. Baked beans with pork and molasses is the only official recipe I can think of.

that's sad as there are so many ways they can add some extra body to other simple meals and soups. more vegetables and added cooked dry beans can really improve a diet and also cut expenses (even more so if you have the space and time needed to grow and harvest your own fresh beans, shellies and dry beans).

 

[Blue-Jay]

my own experience with growing beans in a somewhat non-optimal area has shown that it is possible but not always easy.

Growing good quality dry beans in our still fairly moist climate in the U.S. is still a challenge. It takes some learning of technique of what to do and when to do it.

 

[Blue-Jay]

the Heinz bean plant is huge. there's some videos of them making beans and of course a large percentage of those beans come from North American growers. they only want the white Navy Pea Beans which are acceptable as so many do eat them, but how do we get people to try other beans and other ways of eating them? one bean eater at a time...

White beans are very mild in flavor and goes easily with anything a food company wants to pair them up with. Changing people's eating habits to more plant based or bean based diet is not easy. It's almost as if they have to get the idea of it themselves.

 

[meadow]

I also vaguely remember it being a style of store-bought, metal-canned bean where the beans were 'frenched'. I assume that's related to this sort of gizmo which I've seen, and may have had as a kid, but don't remember ever using.

Yes! That brings back memories, although I've never seen them canned (never looked) but used to purchase frozen "French-cut green beans" with slivered almonds. Basically just julienned green beans, but the long slender ones that you've mentioned. I even bought one of those gizmos from Lehman's back in the day and had forgotten that I have it! So thank you for that reminder. Could have put that to good use this summer, dang it.

 

[jbosmith]

i think these things are factors, but if the UK is generally cooler and damp then a dry bean harvest is not easy to accomplish without some dedication (aka labor). fresh green or wax beans are a different story entirely.

my own experience with growing beans in a somewhat non-optimal area has shown that it is possible but not always easy.

I suspect this is why favas are so much more popular on that side of the puddle.

This whole thread has made me want a yummy Scottish curry.

 

[meadow]

Growing good quality dry beans in our still fairly moist climate in the U.S. is still a challenge. It takes some learning of technique of what to do and when to do it.

Your 'hanging them in the sun' technique was exceptionally helpful over here! Removing the leaves made a big difference too (although I'm reserving that for when I think it is necessary).

Do you have any other advice for moist climates? I'm going to start them off in tunnels next year, as recommended in that first Wanigan newsletter and also allow more spacing to maximize sun exposure.

 

[meadow]

I've been shelling Dutch Bullet beans. I hadn't heard back from the original source of these beans (to see if they recall how they were acquired) and forgot to follow up, so I need to do that.

Meanwhile, I came across a Dutch site that has Walcherse Bruine Kogel. They also have your Candy! @Bluejay77 Such a vibrantly colored bean, it's sooo pretty!! Makes me question why I've been focused on brown beans, haha. But I really do think Dutch Bullet may be Walcherse Bruine Kogel, considering that the English translation is either Ball or Bullet and they look the same.

 

[Artorius]

I have not written anything here for a long time, but I just don't have time for it now. Regular work, gardening and then reworking the crops in the kitchen completely fill my days. In addition, trips to the forest because in Poland at this time of the year there is a national madness called mushrooms, and I am 100% Polish. And then the kitchen again

I am starting to collect pole bean pods. They are heavily delayed this year. Fortunately, after the cold September, now comes a warm babie lato in Poland, that is Indian summer in America. Frosts are not announced until the beginning of November. I think I will start taking photos of the seeds at the end of October. For now, I admire yours.

Recently, a friend of mine from England brought me a large packet of beans from the US and Canada. I was supposed to receive them in mid-May, but for various reasons I received them only now. I can say that I ended the old bean hunting season and started a new one at the same time,

 

[Triffid]

I suspect this is why favas are so much more popular on that side of the puddle.

That said, it is easy to harvest a dry crop of favas in the British climate, but they're almost exclusively eaten green.
We export tonnes to the Middle East, but we have no culture outselves of eating them dry. Whereas in the Netherlands, with a similar climate to the UK, there is a long standing tradition of eating dry favas and dry Phaseolus.
We used to also eat dry peas, hundreds of years ago, but that died out almost entirely. So there may be more to it than just weather/ability to dry produce.
This has very recently changed on a microscale - there are small producers marketing British dried pulses as the demand for locally-grown plant protein increases.