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Post by wildseed57 on Feb 10, 2011 23:00:19 GMT -5
Legumes, Are a very interesting species, A couple years ago I was given a box with some envelopes that had seeds in them. one envelope held three large runner type beans marked as Indian Bear Paw, I tried growing them out, but the seeds were to old. I looked to see if I could find some and have found them again but the ones for sale are large brown beans with black or dark purple blotches, while the ones I had reminded me of one called painted lady. I eat a lot of legumes, but know very little about most of the cultivated, I need to get several bags this summer and evaluate the different varieties even if it means eating beans all summer.
Surprisingly the best flavored legume was from a Honey Mesquite tree or Honey Locus I can't remember which as its been a few years since I was in Northern New Mexico. We have a lot of Black locus growing here in Missouri, but you can't eat their beans that I know of. I have some Pigeon peas which actually a bean I haven't tried cooking any of them before. I would like to find a large, full flavored meaty bean that doesn't mess with my stomach flora, as there are several that will fit the bill so I will be busy this summer.
George W.
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Post by garnetmoth on Feb 10, 2011 23:29:24 GMT -5
Hi George- I think its more your flora enjoy them, than they are "messing" with them. Wind is the way your bacteria say "beans is good food!" I eat beans quite a lot and dont seem to have as much of a reaction anymore, but I also eat lots of cultured foods- maybe that sways the balance of flora?
Ive heard rinsing canned beans helps (it seems to for me), one bean I can not digest well are adzukis- OUCH!. Theyre cute and cook pretty quickly, its a shame! Have you tried sprouting (soaking overnight, then rinsing every 12h for 2-3 days) to see if that helps?
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Post by Alan on Feb 10, 2011 23:32:11 GMT -5
Hi George- I think its more your flora enjoy them, than they are "messing" with them. Wind is the way your bacteria say "beans is good food!" I eat beans quite a lot and dont seem to have as much of a reaction anymore, but I also eat lots of cultured foods- maybe that sways the balance of flora? Ive heard rinsing canned beans helps (it seems to for me), one bean I can not digest well are adzukis- OUCH!. Theyre cute and cook pretty quickly, its a shame! Have you tried sprouting (soaking overnight, then rinsing every 12h for 2-3 days) to see if that helps? Carol Deppe covers this pretty well in the Resilient Gardener, I'll ask her if she minds if I quote the relevant text, if not I'll post it here, but everything you mentioned above is pretty close to what she wrote there as well, good advice from two very smart folks! |
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Post by galina on Feb 12, 2011 8:23:28 GMT -5
Keen101
thank you very much for the alternative names. I had been wondering whether NM Appaloosa might be the same, and your information has confirmed it. Anasazi and Jacob's Cattle are names that go with several different beans - doesn't make it easy ;D
Thank you everybody for suggestions for good beans to grow in the UK. Actually, I quite like these 'exotic' beans and have a niche use for them. They are good for crop rotation in the greenhouse. And I like to grow them for cultivar preservation too.
As far as beans go there is little rhyme nor reason as to what will do well and what will not. I ordered six different ph vulgaris beans from SMAC and SESE for last year. By definition none were suitable for the UK due to coming from utterly different climates. Yet 5 of them did very well here, 'Pink Tip Greasy' being the only one that wasn't very good. Other beans that come from much closer to here - for example Rhinegold - I cannot grow here well either. Yet they succeed in areas with a shorter growing season than we have, if they get a burst of real summer heat, which we don't often get.
There are a few Ph vulgaris beans that seem to do well in just about all bean growing areas. For example Rattlesnake and Cherokee Trail of Tears. Others have a much narrower geographic distribution. It is a case for trial and error and experimentation.
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Post by galina on Feb 12, 2011 8:35:27 GMT -5
A lot of dry beans are getting rare. I had a hard time collecting them for trials and growout this year (both: if I end up with a lot of it, that means it succeeded. If I don't, that means it failed  ). Then I'll have to grow them out even more to have enough for taste-tests. I'm up to maybe 20 varieties or so by now, 14 of them from Canada because I could not find many here that were suitable for northern states. Atash, I am growing a few beans from Salt Spring Seeds. It will be interesting to hear your reports. Their 'Gramma Walters' have done particularly well here. 'Neabel's Ukrainian' are not quite as good, but grow trouble-free and they are early. Are you interested in European dry or dual use beans? |
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Post by seedywen on Feb 12, 2011 10:51:19 GMT -5
galina,
I too am growing out many dry bean varieties from Saltspring Seeds. Dan has been selecting bean varieties, for growing in a west-coast maritime climate for about thirty years. So many varieties are already well adjusted to our wet and cool general growing conditions. Two years back, our farming group purchased a bulk order from Saltspring Seeds and distributed the seeds among some thirty dedicated seed savers so that we could improve our own seed stock, build a community seed supply and 'seed' our community Seed Saturday which we sponsor each year. These included; pole- Neabel.
And Bush- Dry-Black Turtle, Dragon’s Tongue, Ireland Creek Annie, Jacob’s Cattle, Kidney, Odawa, Ukrainian, beka Brown, Orca, Ruckle and Montezuma Red.
Most of the seeds grew out quite successfully for almost everyone involved, the first year. However last year's growing and saving seed conditions were so poor that few varieties were able to mature.
Thankfully there was still abundance stored from the previous year.
Grew out many other vegetable seed varieties from Saltspring but this is a heirloom bean thread:)
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Post by atash on Feb 12, 2011 13:55:22 GMT -5
Very interested. Our climate here is more like that of western Europe than the more continental climates east of the mountains. I cant' think of any European climate that corresponds exactly because the geography is different, but Seattle's climate has a similar heat profile to London's, except a few degrees warmer most of the time, but less equable, getting a little warmer on summer days and cooler on winter nights. Our rain is also more seasonal, very similar to that of the western Mediterranean basin.
Beans that are suitable both as a vegetable eating the green pods, or equally well for dry beans later on, are particularly rare, as the two purposes diverged before stringless types were introduced. Since one of our specialties are "backyard crops", we want crops that are as flexible as possible, to give backyard gardeners more options with fewer crops.
One bean that does work well for both purposes, that we can get here, are Scarlet Runner types. I'm working on those too.
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). 