Runner bean seedling

In spring I decided I wasn’t quite patient enough to let the climbing rose and jasmine do its work over the garden arch I had installed so for a quick fix I decided to grow runner beans. I didn’t think I’d have that much success to be honest, I thoroughly  underestimated how many beans 4 plants can produce! (I grew one plant up each stake of the arch by sowing directly into the ground after frosts had ended). Maybe it was the hot spring we had which ensured that every bean sprouted and quickly grew into a huge plant. The arch was covered very quickly indeed and started making pretty red flowers.

Flowering Runner bean

At first the flowers just fell off but with regular watering through the dry periods, from July onwards I started getting lots of tender little beans. I couldn’t quite stay on top of it and because we don’t eat a whole lot of veg, and certainly not that many beans. I gave away loads of beans to neighbours and colleagues, blanched and froze some (which I still haven’t used) and then decided I’d see what they would be like mature. So recently, after the warm spell in autumn had passed, I harvested the big pods off the plant to keep the kidney beans inside.

Although in the UK runner beans tend to be grown in order to eat the pods when young, before they get stringy, the beans are quite nice actually. Kidney beans contain a toxin which is quite poisonous to humans, so it is important to boil them properly before eating. (I’ll write more in detail about this in a seperate post). It is advised to boil for a minimum of 10 minutes (make sure it is a rolling boil, not a simmer). But I found that with my fresh beans which hadn’t been dried yet, 10 minutes wasn’t nearly enough and they still were a bit crunchy for my taste. The flavour was interesting – the only description I can come up with is “chestnutty”. I imagine they would be very nice in a salad.

Dried runner beans

In the end I used them to make Rajma in a pressure cooker, where they took another 20 minutes at least to get tender enough and although different from the red kidney beans that usually get used in this, I thought it worked out very well.

I think next year I’ll try growing more of my own pulses in the garden, these are very useful for drying and keeping through the winter and unusually, we’ll actually eat them unlike other veggies.

Dried kidney beans, ready for storage.