Growing beans for drying (UK) – a comparison of varieties – Part 1: Yield
Kidney beans were surprisingly successful! About 5 years ago we started growing beans specifically for drying. However, at first it was only borlotti beans. We then expanded to butter beans and became more interested in what might be possible in the UK climate. It can get pretty wet in Manchester and the growing season is short – Mid May to beginning of October is the frost free zone.
It has been surprising how well our plants have faired and, over the last couple of years, we have significantly increased the varieties we grow.
Dried bean harvests and our beany plans for 2021
In planning for the 2020 growing season we posted a discussion about growing beans for drying. We have always grown Borlotti and Butter beans; saving own our seed, but we decided it would be a great challenge to see if we could expand our range grown on our plot in Manchester!
2020 harvests of dried beans Green bean & coconut pickle
I made this pickle using beans from last year’s crops that had been frozen. Within a couple of weeks I am expecting a mountain of beans to be ready at the allotment fresh! I would say this is a similar to a sweet piccalilly with the addition of a coconut flavour. Perfect with a BBQ or in a cheese butty!
Planting beans, peas & sweetcorn
This afternoon we have been sowing peas, beans and sweetcorn. Earlier in the year we were discussing how we were looking forward to increasing range of ‘beans for drying‘.
Here we have sown a mixture of french (dwarf & climbing) and runner beans. A few interesting varieties here so fingers crossed the yields will do well!