Mystery beans
Dani brought me a bag of the
prettiest dried beans I'd ever seen. When she explained about
Jack beans on the phone ("they grow so fast and tall, it's like Jack
and the beanstalk"), I'd assumed the name was just another description
for lablab (aka hyacinth beans, Lablab
purpureus).
But it turns out Jack beans are completely different --- Canavalia
sp. --- although
they are edible and have also been used as a living mulch.
On the other hand, an
image search suggests that these beans might actually be scarlet runner
beans (Phaseolus
coccineus).
Many people grow scarlet runner beans purely for their ornamental
flowers, but the beans and tubers are both edible.
Ever since I saw photos
(which I included in Trailersteading) of a trailer shaded and
spiced up by an arbor covered with fast-growing plants, I've been
meaning to follow suit in front of our south-facing windows.
Originally, I'd thought of putting perennials there --- maybe hardy
kiwis or hops --- but since we're pondering using that space as a greenhouse
addition in the future, annuals look better for 2013. Mystery
beans it is!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Look like Runner beans to me too. Probably the most popular bean in GB. Grows to 8-10ft + in most conditions, though like most beans likes plenty of muck. very heavy cropper. Not used as a dried bean here, just eaten sliced and boiled/steamed and salted or frozen for winter.If you let the bean get too big you will need to "string" the sides before slicing. No reason why you can't have the best of both worlds and plant a hop as a perennial and the beans as a crop for this year!
I immediately thought of runner beans, too. Apparently they come in scarlet or fuchsia. I grew the scarlet ones up over our bedroom door one year, and would lay in bed and watch the hummingbirds feed from them.
The green beans taste great. I have never tried cooking the dried ones.
Once you have them growing and can tell by the plant exactly what they are, I would like to know.
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