The very best baked beans

Saturday 21st October 2017
Finally. The Borlottis are harvested.
With the holiday upon us and the weather pretty foul, I spent most of the day shelling beans.

I grow several types of beans. Apart from last year, when they all really struggled, they've always been an easy crop which produces well.
I prefer to grow climbers as they make better use of space. They tend to crop over a longer period too, though this isn't too important for drying beans.

For my fresh green beans I grow French bean Cobra. It is very prolific, stringless and very tasty.
I grow runner beans too, but I let them mature and harvest the beans inside. If harvested when the pods are swelled and beginning to yellow, the beans can be cooked from fresh. But left on the plant the pods dry and are easily cracked open to reveal the dried beans inside. These are excellent in winter casseroles. In fact on the continent this is the sole purpose for which runner beans are grown.

Some years are better for drying the beans than others. This year has been excellent. In a warm damp year they are best harvested earlier and dried artificially as the pods and beans can start to go mouldy on the plant.

I save the best pods for next year's beans.

As well as runner beans, I grow another called Gigantes. This gives a large butter bean. I used to grow runner bean Czar for this purpose, but Gigantes gives a much bigger bean. Besides, white runner beans are significantly less prolific than their cousins.

I grow Pea Beans too. They are hard to get hold of and I lost my stock last year when they failed to germinate. They produce a small bean with a beautiful ying-yang type pattern. Fortunately I managed to source some more.

The shelling out takes ages - a job for a wet day or to be done in front of the TV. They then go into the dehydrator for a while, just to make sure there is no residual moistness.

Left to right: Borlottis x2, Runner beans, Gigantes butter beans x2, Pea beans x2

The final harvest this year was a good one. It doesn't look like much but the beans go a long way and are full of protein. There was a period in my life when I was vegan (before it was the trendy thing to do) and dried beans were an important part of my diet. I love their taste and texture and all the better if I can now grow them myself.

On Sunday Sue cooked up a bean mix in the slow cooker. She followed a recipe for Boston beans and they were delicious, a great improvement on tinned baked beans, which is saying something.

We intend this winter to explore more versions of baked beans, drawing on our plentiful supply of frozen home grown tomatoes and dried herbs.

Possibly the greatest meal - we've managed to improve bangers, beans and chips.

An Unpredictable Week

Monday 16th October 2017
Borlotti harvest abandoned... again

Borlotti beans waiting

to be harvested

Autumn seems to be calming down a little as we enter the last week of school before the October half term break. The fire has been lit in the evenings, the light is drawing in and we are making the most of the warm, dry weather before winter gets a hold. 
Monday morning saw me harvesting the last of the beans for drying. I was just starting on picking the Borlotti beans a week ago when the Siberian Blue Robin news came through from North Ronaldsay and the task was abandoned.

Well it seems there is something about the Borlotti beans this year. Half way through my second attempt to get them picked, I checked my phone and saw this message - Ofsted. Come in now.
For those who don't know, a school's Ofsted inspection is just about as stressful as it gets. It comes round once every three years, but ours was two years late so the school had been on tenterhooks for an awful long time.
I won't say what I think about Ofsted, just that I wouldn't do the job as I have too much respect for my fellow professionals.
I can't tell you how the inspection went either. In fact I don't know. Sue does because she is the headteacher, but she can't tell anybody, even me, for about six weeks.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur.

Tuesday 17th October 2017
The Unmentionable
Ofsted  - I can't tell you how it went.
I didn't even take my phone into work with me in case it made some unexpected noise. So when I got in the car after a very stressful day, the last thing I needed was to see a flurry of messages and a MEGA which had gone off at lunchtime.
First thought in my head was ... actually I can't repeat it here. But it went something like... I bet everybody's booked their planes and boats, how am I going to get sorted for this one? Then it went... Oh. It's in Dorset. I could have got there today. Relax. No need for complicated arrangements. Just leave at 2 in the morning and be there at first light. Bet it's not there.
The bird in question was a Two-barred Greenish Warbler, a bird which I missed when I spent a painful autumn in hospital back in 2006.

Wednesday 18th October 2017
Two-Barred Greenish Warbler (my 6th new bird of 2017)
I met Dan near the M4 at five in the morning and we headed down to the south coast. We pulled up into the car park in the dark. Others were there already and were rather prematurely heading down the path to the small quarry where the bird had been found the previous day. We waited until it was light enough to see before heading out.
The bird had actually been first seen back on Sunday but not identified and Monday had been stormy. Everything about this felt ominous. It was just too easy. No way was it going to be there.

The Two-barred Greensih Warbler was in that copse to the right of the quarry

The morning was gloomy as we sussed out the sight. The early birds were lined up along a small track, peering over a stone wall down into a small quarry. They reported that the bird had already been seen, though we remained sceptical until we had clapped eyes on it ourselves. The clump of trees it was frequenting were a little distant in the poor light, but birds were already flitting around, mostly firecrests, Britain's smallest bird and always great to see.

Piccie nabbed from twitter - if you're reading this and you recognise

the photo as yours, sorry but I hope you don't mind 😊

Then I clapped eyes on the quarry (not the rock one, the bird one). It appeared briefly right on the outside of  one of the sycamores, sat right out. It had two wing bars and it was green(ish). Yep. Definitely a Two-barred Greenish Warbler! Then it melted back into the tree. Over the next couple of hours I saw it about half a dozen more times, but it never stayed still for very long and proved impossible to track through the vegetation. I did succeed in getting it in the telescope for a few seconds which is more than most other people managed.

As others had not had such prolonged views, we gave it another couple of hours on site. And how they dragged! During that time I saw the bird for about two seconds in total! I was keen to get back to Lincolnshire, to beat the traffic and to be home to greet Sue from work. It had been a tough couple of days for her and I wanted to be there.

Fortunately, just before the deadline I had set to leave, the bird appeared in the tree right in front of us and showed brilliantly for a couple of minutes. Most of the other birders were around the corner where it had been giving intermittent brief views for those at the front of the pack.

After ticks in Orkney, Cornwall, The Outer Hebrides, Shetland and The Scilly Isles this year, Dorset had been a breeze!

Thursday 19th October 2017
What a Car Crash
Back to work today, but I was a little late in as another two cars had gone off at the bend. That's nine in the past year and it's only a matter of time before somebody dies.
I wasn't needed at work so headed home again. I was owed time anyway and could do with some downtime to get over a hectic couple of days. The road was still closed and I walked along for a nose at the car in the ditch - it was pretty badly smashed up. I tried to make polite conversation with the police officer they had left to look after things but he proved to be a complete twonk. All he could do was to ask me to walk on the other side of the road as it was a crime scene. Beyond that he seemed to completely lack the ability to take any initiative for himself.

The Highways agency - the ones who failed to put the bend sign back up after it was ploughed into a couple of month ago - had put a badly placed Road Closed sign way down the road. But everybody was ignoring it, resulting in a procession of vehicles turning round in our drive, which was worrying the sheep in the paddock and upsetting the dogs. So I duly parked my car across the drive  - not as harsh as it sounds for there is a farm track they can turn round in too, but this muppet decided to try it elsewhere and managed to get stuck across the road!


I pointed out that he had driven past a Road Closed sign and he replied that he had not seen it as there was a car stopped in front of it. When I asked him how he knew this if he had not seen the sign, he went a little sheepish!





Friday 20th October 2017
Breaking up... for half term
Work - for a change! The last day of a half term which is always both exciting and stressful in equal measure for me, for I never quite know when I'm going to abandon all plans and head off to some distant outcrop of the British Isles.
But this last week has been even more unpredictable than usual.
Tomorrow's job? The Borlotti beans!

Bean Trials - Findings start Coming In

Borlottis

Two years ago I grew as many different potato varieties as I could with the aim of settling on a few varieties which would serve me well.

This year it was the turn of the beans, runners, dwarfs, dried, French, inside, outside...

The beans broadly fall into two categories, those where the whole pod is eaten and those grown purely for the actual beans inside.

First, let's get the dwarf beans out of the way. They were a complete failure this year, with virtually no germination. I guess the late winter meant the soil was not warm enough. Everybody round here had the same problem. The climbing beans on the other hand did well. Don't ask me to explain that one!

Runners
I have abandoned heritage varieties this year and have prioritised stringlessness. This is because I detest finding a mouthful of stringy bean pod in my mouth. It's like eating bony fish.
I have grown a red variety, Armstrong, and it has done well. Even when I forget to harvest it for a while, the ones which have grown a bit too big still snap cleanly. Then there's a variety with white flowers and white beans - the name totally escapes me right now. This I am growing for the beans inside, which I hope to be able to use as dried butter beans. It's pretty much stringless as well, so would have been a good back up variety if needed. For some reason, white varieties always seem less vigorous than red ones and take longer to get going.

French (Green) Beans
I've grown a past favourite, Blue Lake, outside and it has again performed very well. It is a crisp, clean flavoured bean which is responsible for me discovering that there are some green foods I actually like! I've also grown Cobra this year, some in the polytunnel and some outside.Both have done well. Given how precious space is in the polytunnel, I may just grow enough in there next year to last until the outdoor crop comes good.

Yard Long beans

A bit of a novelty one this. It failed outside, even when started off in modules in the polytunnel, but the tropical conditions under cover have suited it much better. You don't need many beans to make a meal and it's cropped very well over quite a long period. Not quite as delicate a taste as the French Beans, but it has earned a place in next year's plan. I have lots of very long pods full of next year's seed just hanging until they fully dry.

So we're pretty much sorted for next year on the green bean front.

But I've also been trying a few varieties for drying, a great source of protein for winter stews. The plants in the polytunnel have gone over now and many of the pods are dry enough to pod out.
It's not that long ago that the luxurious profusion on the bean plants was threatening to overwhelm the whole polytunnel. However, I've a feeling that this may have been somewhat at the expense of the bean harvest. I've also got a feeling that the earlier beans to set weren't pollinated very well. The insects took a while to discover the tropical environment of the polytunnel earlier in the year and the older pods seem to have very few properly developed beans inside.

Today's exploratory harvest was, I have to admit, slightly disappointing, but on the whole I have a lot more beans than I started with and I have a much better idea of what I want to grow for next year, and more importantly where I want to grow it.

Pea Beans
An old favourite this one. It performs pretty well outside and I actually planted some late to replace a couple of failed crops. Inside the polytunnel it romped away, winning the race to the top and thriving under the warm conditions. It wasn't long before I was regularly having to pull leaves from the plants to allow some air ventilation.






But, now that most of the leaves have fallen, the final yield is sparse. I reckon I'll struggle to fill a jar. So although it'll be on next year's list of plants to definitely grow, it probably won't be getting a place in the polytunnel again. There is plenty of space outside to grow as much as I want, so half of this year's harvest may be saved for next year's seed.

Black-eye Beans

I absolutely love eating these beans, so when a few were included in a cheap pack of 'exotic' bean seeds, it gave me the idea to try growing the beans I had in store in the kitchen. Last year I just sowed them straight into the cold, wet ground and they happily rotted away!

Not one to give up, this year I took more care of them and raised them alongside other beans in modules under cover. Germination and initial growth was strong. I wasn't sure whether they would be dwarves or climbers, and they ended up somewhere in between, starting off slowly but then climbing up the sunflower stems in the polytunnel.

Again, though, the total yield looks like it will be fairly low. Each pod has done well, with up to 13 beans in each pod, but the number of pods is fairly low. However, I intend to try some black-eye beans fresh in tomorrow's dinner and if I like them they may just earn a little place under cover next year. I'm hoping, though, that they will thrive outside. As with the pea beans, it may be that less leaves equals more beans. Or are they too exotic?

Black-eye Beans growing next to Pea Beans

A pod full of black-eye beans

Fresh black-eye beans

Over in the corner of the polytunnel, the climbing Borlotti pods provided a vivid splash of colour through the summer. But now the pods are fading. These beans appear to have been the most prolific of the beans I have grown for drying, as well as looking very dapper.
I podded a few of them today to discover the most subtly beautiful beans inside.






Borlottis



So Borlottis haved earned themselves an increase in space next year, as long as they taste nice. There are some growing outside too, a less tall variety, so it will be interesting to assess how they do.















I've saved the very worst till last. Not beans, but peas, I decided to plant a batch of chick peas from the store cupboard to keep the black-eye beans company. They germinated very well and I was pleased with their initial growth. But after a while it became apparent that each plant seemed to have, on average, about one pod on it! Not only that, but each pod seemed to have one chickpea inside! This seems to be a crop which, at least in a British polytunnel, would require quite some acreage to fill a tin.
But it gets worse. For today I realised that most of those precious pods had either dried up and withered to nothing or else just totally disappeared.

 A rare chickpea pod 

I guess then that if we want to continue to enjoy eating chickpeas, hummus and tahini, then we'll just have to buy them from the supermarket. Some crops just weren't designed to grow in this country, which probably explains why you don't see fields full of chickpeas.

My total chickpea harvest!!!!
Sue and I will have half each.

Raising the pulses

Monday 2nd July
A glorious morning sky.

Exotic beans
I bought a cheap packet of beans from a pound shop which contained black-eyed (one of my favourites), haricot (baked beans), purple teepee and butter bean. I must say, I hadn't realised I'd be able to grow this range of pulses but, aside from slug browsing, they seem to be doing quite nicely.

Rows of exotic beans. A few gaps, but otherwise doing OK.

The thought struck me that I already had half a jar of black-eyed beans in the pantry. Could these be any different to what I'd just planted? So, as an experiment, I've sprouted the beans and literally thrown them into the ground.

Now to wait and see what happens. Could be a very cheap way of buying lots of seeds (though hopefully I'll be able to save my own of this particular variety anyway).

I'm also growing loads of kidney beans with seed saved from last year. These are edible as dwarf beans but, being a heritage variety (Canadian Wonder), I found the stringiness not to my taste. However, the prospect of jars full of dried beans for winter protein is a very appealing one.




Meanwhile, the Borlotti beans I sowed in the greenhouse are reaching for the skies and ready to be planted out.

Borlottis protected in the greenhouse.

Likewise, all the other beans I belatedly sowed to fill the slug gaps are bursting into the fresh air. I love growing beans - they come up so strong and before you know it you've got strong, thriving plants.








Outside, most of the early sown beans have just about made it past the slugs. There's an equation here - growth rate of the plant against rate of eating by the slugs. This is where my wet weather slug culls redress the balance in favour of the plants. A modicum of sunshine in the last few days has helped too.

However, the seeds I planted direct in mid May are nowhere to be seen. This is when the slug explosion really went berserk. My French beans Blue Lake (a tender, stringless variety) have completely vanished in the soil.
Let's hope that giving them a start in paper pots and culling the slugs will give the new plants a fighting chance.