My Scarlet Runner Beans
Melanie
August 22, 2011
This was the first year for me to plant these beans, which grow in cooler weather more than hot. Oddly enough we’ve had a fairly cool summer. The beans have been producing as fast I can pick them and we’ve been enjoying them since Early July. They have a much thicker pod than any other bean I’ve planted which made it tricky to figure out how to cook.They were very tough, and I hate wasting things, but no one liked the pod to eat.
The reason behind me picking this heirloom bean was, due to the space I had in my garden,and the bright red flowers which attracted more bees, and butterflies. My purpose was bringing more pollinators into my garden as well as bringing a crop that will be enough for our family of six. These beans if you keep picking them will contunie to flower and bring more throughout a season. It’s just a matter of tending, and caring to get the most out of them. They haven’t let me down, so they have won a place for next years garden.
The first harvest of beans boiled for a few hours along with Mustard greens. They were delicious but not a winner by far they needed something else. Over the weekend I picked another bundle of beans to be cooked. This time I cooked them in the pod itself, and they were amazing! So much better than cooking them outside the pod itself. It took two and a half hours, for these large beans to be tender and I love the taste. Of course they taste like a bean, but they also have a little sweetness to it. My kids adored them, so the next harvest will be left on the vine to dry, so I’ll have seeds to plant.
There’s two ways you can save the seeds, one, leave the bean pods on the vine to dry completely. They would turn yellow, and then white and dried up looking. Or you can pick the pods, leave them somewhere to completely dry. You should be able to rattle them if the beans inside are dry.
They happen to be amazingly pretty too 🙂
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5 Comments
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My Journey With Candida
I eat a lot of beans but have never tried these. I love the red flowers they produce.
https://twitter.com/#!/CandidaJourney/status/188592943345565696
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Becky Jane
These look so fun! This type looks like it would be a great one to plant for a bean pole teepee.
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SocialStudiesSoubrette
I love beans of most any variety. These are so pretty. What a neat idea to plant them to draw in pollinators. I would never have thought of that. I may have to borrow that tid bit from you ;D
Anonymous
What about purple bean soup from the dried beans? Grew them for the flowers, ate the big crunchy beans raw, now saving beans to dry. But you don't mention soup. I will look around and post what I find here.