Product Description
Bean and Gone….
May is probably the best month for sowing your beans. We’ve all done it – we’ve pushed our luck sowing them in March or April but it’s a risk as if too warm, the slugs get them and if too cold you are resowing! May is a guarantee of success in the sense that the ground has warmed up and your beans will grow like the proverbial beanstalk! Yes of course, protect them from our slippery friends (friends because hedgehogs and birds feed on snails and slugs so we don’t want to eradicate them totally) but they will romp away in no time, in full flower for our bees to pollinate. I have picked 3 of the best, all from our Eden Project Franchi branded range:
BORLOTTO BEAN OF SALUGGIA – This dwarf variety is endangered and on the Slow Food ‘Ark of Taste’ which is a register of foods and varieties at risk of being lost from all over the world, including the UK Saluggia Bean - Arca del Gusto - Slow Food Foundation Borlotto beans are a shelling bean and a typical regional peasant food from this region of Piemonte in the pre-Alps. They are used in the summer cooked and when tender mixed with tuna in olive oil and thinly sliced red onion for a lovely picnic dish. In the winter they’d be used in minestrone and soups, in stews and especially in risotto as this region is a rice producing area. In fact, Italy is the largest rice producing country in the Europe. Sow them now and harvest when the pods look leathery and faded because that is when the bean inside is at its best. Then dry them in the sun or the airing cupboard but make sure they are fully dried before you close that jar lid for the winter or you will have an unpleasant surprise. The best way to store them is in the freezer in portions because then you can make your dish and throw in a portion and they will cook in about 40 mins.
FRENCH BEAN ROCQUENCOURT – this thin, yellow stringless dwarf French bean is one of the earliest heirloom French filet beans available and one of the finest with a truly incomparable taste. The heavy-cropping variety grows to about 40cm tall and is ideal for containers. It is at its best when picked young and slightly green for a wonderful buttery tasting summer bean salad, steam the beans for 5 minutes and drizzle with vinaigrette whilst still warm. Like all beans, it should be sown 2-3cm deep a fist apart. Support the plants with canes if needs be and keep the ground free of weeds. Harvest as they ripen and the more you pick, the more will grow in succession!
BUTTERBEAN SPAGNA GRANO BIANCO – I remember mum buying fresh butterbeans still in their pods, but I have not seen them sold like this since I was a child. I remember how large they were in comparison to other types of shelling beans, and I remember my Nonna’s minestrone with the floury-buttery beans which would fill my small mouth and satisfy my tummy! They grow vigorously – so much so that the last 2 years my frame has collapsed but that just also say a lot more about my wigwam building skills too! I think if you stood there long enough, they would climb up you! Boil till tender and eat them as you wish with a lime, ginger and chilli dressing for example or be really traditional and put them in a stew, a soup, a casserole and they dry brilliantly.
We’d like to offer these 3 Franchi varieties for just £8 including the postage and packing to sow during May for a summer harvest going on and on till season end. Remember, prepare and serve them simply for best results. Let the bean do the talking. Buon Appetito ! Paolo
