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Post by extremegardener on Jan 15, 2011 8:16:42 GMT -5
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Post by castanea on Jan 15, 2011 11:25:02 GMT -5
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Post by atash on Jan 15, 2011 12:34:07 GMT -5
Whoa.
Two different plants and crops are being discussed. Winged PEAS aka Asparagus PEAS are Tetragonolobus purpureus. Winged BEANS are Psophocarpus tetragonolobus. Notice that the generic name of one is the specific name of the other, and the common names are similar (but not quite identical).
Winged PEAS are natives of southern Europe, grow in warm climates BUT over the winter, so they can grow up at high latitudes in the summer. They are related to the genus Lotus and have cute bright red (not purple) flowers. Look somewhere between clover and some exotic Legume like Sutherlandia.
They make a small edible pod that is fibrous and to me tastes like clover.
Winged BEANS are tropical, need a lot of heat and humidity, are usually daylength sensitive but there is a day-neutral variety in existence, and have edible tuberous roots (in some parts of the world and not others...), edible young leaves, edible pods that are vaguely similar to green-beans but shaped differently and somewhat different texture (fairly palatable in their own right), and mature dry beans you can use just like soybeans, even similar protein content. You can make winged-bean milk out of them or "tofu".
Most of us can't grow the latter because they are too tropical.
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Post by castanea on Jan 15, 2011 12:39:52 GMT -5
Good catch, Atash.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 15, 2011 13:48:44 GMT -5
If one is going to try winged beans, you may want to seek out the Huanan version (I think Baker creek carries it). It's natve to an unusally northern (for a wingbean) strain so it's presumaby a daylength neutral one.
I have heard of people making "wingbean milk" and wingbeanfu, but it may be a touch more complicated than it would be with ordinary soybeans. First wingbean seed is a lot harder than soybeans; you are unlikey to crack/crush one without a pair of pliers, and the skins are a lot more adhesive. There is also the fact that whenever I tried to start any myself (one of the asian supermarkets I used to frequent carried a line of seed packets that were produced in Thailand, which tended to contain seed for a lot of vegetables that weren't really suited for around here) it could not fail to notice that, once soaked the beans emittled a really unwholesome odor, the kind I tend to associate with things that are not safe to eat. I have no doubt that wingbean seed can be made into something edible, but I suspect that it involves an addional step, like leaching. Wing bean seeds come in colors ranging from pale tan to black, if I was planning to make bean milk, I'd probably go with the tan kind for preference, on the grounds that paler seed ususally translates into less stuff that needs to be leached out (and also less bitterness)
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Post by extremegardener on Jan 15, 2011 14:43:47 GMT -5
Thanks, Atash, for sorting that out.
It's definitely the winged peas Tetragonolobus purpureus I'm interested in. So, have you grown them in Seattle?
Do they have serious culinary value or are they a curio?
Tropical plants (winged beans) are pretty much out of the question for me.
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Post by atash on Jan 15, 2011 15:15:52 GMT -5
Extremegardener, they are worth growing for looks and nitrogen fixation alone. They are the prettiest "clover" I have ever seen. I would grow them again if I had time.
They should grow fine for you. Yes, I grew them here, and I'm at 47.5 degrees latitude.
I think they really are more of a curio than a serious vegetable; unless I was doing something wrong they're not extremely productive. I would guess the main impetus for growing them is as an attractive nitrogen-fixer, that you can toss into salads or cook as a vegetable as a fringe benefit.
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Post by atash on Jan 15, 2011 15:28:22 GMT -5
Blue Adzuki, this might take some research.
I wonder if your winged beans fermented; I've seen soybeans do that just overnight.
There are also enzymes that need to be deactivated, and it is possible that you need to de-activate them earlier in the process. I have read conflicting reports about this.
Best way to find out might be to experiment, problem being finding an affordable source of winged beans. As far north as I am, I can't grow them without a greenhouse. Even the Hunan variety would be a challenge to ripen.
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Post by stevil on Jan 15, 2011 16:31:29 GMT -5
I think they really are more of a curio than a serious vegetable; unless I was doing something wrong they're not extremely productive. I would guess the main impetus for growing them is as an attractive nitrogen-fixer, that you can toss into salads or cook as a vegetable as a fringe benefit. I agree - a curio. A pretty edimental nitrogen fixer, but hardly worth it yield wise. |
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 15, 2011 17:51:22 GMT -5
Blue Adzuki, this might take some research. I wonder if your winged beans fermented; I've seen soybeans do that just overnight. There are also enzymes that need to be deactivated, and it is possible that you need to de-activate them earlier in the process. I have read conflicting reports about this. Best way to find out might be to experiment, problem being finding an affordable source of winged beans. As far north as I am, I can't grow them without a greenhouse. Even the Hunan variety would be a challenge to ripen. Here's all I can say about the fermentation; 1 the beans had been nicked (you pretty much have to do this for wing beans, the skins are too thick for them to imbibe otherwise, so we are talking about a smell that showed up after and hour not after overnight. Also it didn't really smell beery (which is a note usually detect when something has fermented.) It's been a while but I remeber the smell as being very vegetal and bitter. There was also a distict note of the watery almond smell I usally associate with the presence of cyanogenic glycosides, like amygdalin. As for avalibility, that I can't help you with. I have one wing beans seed I found in a rice bean bag about six or seven months ago. Thats all really. The store where I used to see packets of wing bean seeds no longer carries that brand of seed (probably they got too many complaints from customers who bought seed that never grew. I also used to be able to get seed for water spinach there as well.) Finding bulk wing bean seed at an afforable price would be difficult, doubly so if I'm right and you do need tan seeded to make safe milk (the packets were always mixed, a few tan a few black and a lot of brown, most of the other seed I ever got was brown only) I don't think any of the markets I visit in Ctown carry packets of wing bean seeds (actually now that I think of it, I'm not sure I've seen wing beans in the stores in ANY form vegetable or not.) |
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Post by Hristo on Jan 15, 2011 20:02:27 GMT -5
I think they really are more of a curio than a serious vegetable; I will third this, though I recall someone here (I'm pretty sure it was Frank) liked them prepared in a simple way. Was it fried (when still very young) in a butter?! I have not tried them that way, because the last time I grew them was 3-4 years ago. Raw they taste like a grass to me. But the plant is quite ornamental, especially the flowers with their dark red color. |
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 15, 2011 20:44:59 GMT -5
One or the other of them (I think it was wing bean but I'm not 100%) sure was once touted as the ultimate crop by groups like NASA (who were trying to work out a good selection of crops to send to potential space colonies) because you could eat every part (I think it fizzled out when they realized how hot it had to be for the plant to grow well.
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Post by atash on Jan 16, 2011 2:36:30 GMT -5
BlueAdzuki, one of the promoters of winged beans was...Walt Disney! He was apparently a bit of an amateur futurist and it was and I think still is promoted at Epcot Center.
Yes, it was the winged bean.
It is fairly widely grown in the tropics now but turned out not to be quite the wonder-crop-of-the-future they had anticipated. You can't really eat the whole plant--you wouldn't like the stems or even older leaves--and the different uses are pretty much all mutually-incompatible. You can have the tuberous root OR the leaves OR the pods, OR the beans, not all of them at once. If you want to grow it as a perennial you can harvest young leaves, pods, or beans but not tuberous roots. Even when grown as a perennial it is only grown a few years; the farmers don't want diseases building up. So the fact that it is a perennial is somewhat marginal.
The tubers they can't produce everywhere. They get them in some countries but not others. Nobody's quite sure why aside from differences in tropical climates.
The roasted tubers are a popular street food, and the other popular use is as a substitute for green beans. You can buy them here readily and they are fairly palatable. Leaves and beans seem much less commonly used.
The tubers by the way are astonishingly high in protein for a tuber. Not sure if the amino acid balance is as good as the leaves and seeds. The only part of the plant not particularly rich in protein is...the pods, ironically.
It seems to me that the plant that comes close to being a hardy(ish) version would be Kudzu. Not as rich in leaf protein as its tropical counterpart "Tropical Kudzu" (Pueraria phaseoloides) but for a half-hardy leafy vegetable pretty respectable. The root is starchy not protein-rich but the starch is valuable too.
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Post by orflo on Jan 16, 2011 5:53:07 GMT -5
For me, both of these are very useful crops. Asparagus peas are wonderful (as Hristo mentioned), just have a look at their name. They're productive, stand some frost, stand loads of rain, but aren't really fond of big heats. The common red version is visually very attractive in the garden, and the peas are a delicacy. But it's a lot of work harvesting these (that's something to think about in our 'no time for this' society), they need to be harvested really young. And the peas can be used as peas as well, andalso already mentioned, they provide nitrogen. OK, you won't get the big crops beans or other things give, but the taste is uncomparable.
Now, the winged beans, again, a very useful plant, that had some reputation before it got distributed a bit more. What was promised was just a bit too much, but that's what you get with all these 'novelties', see the promotion campaigns for mangostan, jiaogulan, chia, and so on. If you believe everything you're unbeatable... ;D
Winged beans are just so useful because of all the possibilities they have, beans, roots, young shoots and leaves. Not many plants have this (chayote is one of them that has got that,there are others), and from what I've read, if given the right conditions they can give a decent crop. Every edible plant is useful or has some potential to be turned into something useful....
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Post by diane on Jan 17, 2012 17:59:09 GMT -5
I grew asparagus peas a few times about 40 years ago and am going to grow them again this year. From what I can find online, no one has developed any improved forms. However, a book suggests there may be some.
Suzanne Ashworth, in Seed to Seed, seems to have mixed them up with the tropical ones (which I ate in Borneo as Four-Angled Beans), but does have the description and growing conditions correct. She wrote: "Asparagus pea, one of ten subspecies of Psophocarpus tetragonolobus, ........ the plants are unlikely to be blooming at the same time of in the same climate as winged bean ................. Asparagus peas are frost tolerant annuals that can be fall planted in temperate climates for early spring harvest ..........Members of the Seed Savers Exchange annually offer about 6 varieties of asparagus peas, and the Garden Seed Inventory lists sources for 10 varieties."
I am not a member of SSE (and won't join since it is such a bother sending seeds into the U.S.) Can someone who is a member verify that there are different varieties of it?
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