Curly Beans!

We have grown French beans and Runner beans for more years than we care to remember.  Both Doc and I prefer the flavour of Cobra or Blue Lake French beans but in this part of the world they tend to be less tolerant of our often cold spring weather than Runner beans.  We usually achieve an early start with our Runner Beans and the French beans follow on later in the season.  We have also had good success with planting a late crop of dwarf French beans in early August.

This unusually wet summer, with lower than average light levels, has challenged most fruit and vegetable growers.  I don’t know anyone who has a decent crop of apples and plums are nowhere to be seen.  However, the runner beans, though not as prolific this year, are doing well and I am happily picking a trug full every couple of days.  Scarlett Emperor brings joy to the late summer garden and by the amount of flowers I saw today, there are lots more to come.  The bees love them.

The French beans have struggled to get going this season and we have appreciated them all the more because of their scarcity.  However, they are incredibly curly!  Usually there are a handful of twisted French and Runner beans in the trug and this tends to be caused by the beans coming up against an obstruction such as a bean pole.  However, this year, our French beans have taken curliness to an art form.   The ones in the photo were hanging freely and were not restricted in any way.  Some of the beans have been so tightly curled that they were more like Catherine wheels than beans.

I suggested to Doc that the beans may not have had sufficient water and he raised his eyebrows at this.  However, we do grow our vegetables in well-drained raised beds in a south-westerly position so it only takes a few days of dry weather for the beds to lose moisture, despite the copious amount of organic matter that Doc uses to mulch the beds.  Maybe because the summer has been wetter than usual, we have assumed the beans have been well watered.  Perhaps they have needed a good drink and we overlooked them?

Fluctuations in temperature may have increased the numbers of curly beans because we have had some hot days followed by cold nights. Viruses are another potential cause but the foliage on our beans is healthy and green.

Straight beans win prizes at shows and supermarkets condition shoppers to expect perfection.  But our curly beans taste just as nice as the straight ones.  It takes longer to top and tail them but who cares.  Beans are beans, straight or curly!