Runner beans are a wonderful vegetable. You can grow them in
almost any garden or allotment, or even in drained containers on a town
balcony.
In
well-drained soil and up a bamboo frame they will produce an abundance of beans
(best harvested about 4” long) to be topped and tailed and boiled for 5
minutes.
Serve with
melted butter and salt, perhaps adding just a spot of vinegar (enough not to
notice it) and a pressed garlic clove or two.
The plants
have more to offer. Their scarlet flowers are a lovely adornment to a garden,
and their seeds a gourmet’s delight. The flowers will attract bees, bumblebees
and hover flies – thus helping to pollinate all round.
Harvest the
beans with regularity from mid summer to late autumn.
Some of the
beans will hide from view, grow too long, and become too large and stringy to
enjoy. Leave these to mature on the vine with some that you will allow to grow
to beyond edible size. These large beans (sometimes 1’ or so long) will fatten
and dry in warm weather, their skins becoming brittle.
(When I was
a boy the beans were left to become large and stringy. The strings were cut off
and the beans sliced diagonally. Then they were either eaten or salted down in
jars for the winter.)
As soon as
there are signs of mould, harvest all the large beans and place them on wire
racks indoors to dry. Spread them out or they will rot.
When the
skins are dry, pod the beans. Save some for next year’s seed and keep the rest
handy for eating in the fingers with drinks.
For this
delight, boil the dried beans until soft enough to eat (the time taken will
depend on the dryness of the beans, but test after about half an hour). When
the beans are ready to eat, place them in a bowl with some salt (sea salt is
good), a little olive oil and a pressed garlic clove. Turn them over well and
eat from the hand – having table napkins or kitchen paper handy for oily
fingers.
