Beanz meanz health?
Magic beans.
Rooted into our culture from childhood.
Emerging robustly from hefty cotyledons.
With big health and gardening benefits.
Delicious.
Let’s get them growing!
But first, some revision for you... Over on the excellent Zoe Nutrition and Health channel they set out the considerable rewards of eating a wide range of beans:
https://zoe.com/learn/beans-how-to-eat-more
And Zoe doubled down in this YouTube video by reviewing the compelling science behind the benefits of eating organic food:
https://youtu.be/E4nJ07_02NQ?si=hgzW9H7UnhYmSywR
Both of which explain why, now that the risk of frost is finishing, this is happening at our place:
Climbing, runner and French beans and peas being prepared for germination by soaking overnight
The variety of beans one can grow is considerable. In addition to those bought from garden centres, there’s a diverse choice of old varieties from every corner of the gardening world.
We’re supporters of the Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library which is a huge curated repository of (sometimes arcane, sometimes eccentric) seeds collected for their unique qualities. They’re fascinating in their variety and massively important if we wish to preserve the genetic diversity they embody.
Adam Alexander’s book ‘The Seed Detective’ (Chelsea Green) is a must-read for those who are likely to be captivated by accounts of sometimes thousand-year-old cultivated plant varieties developed by gardeners and farmers all over the world.
Climbing:
Czar (runner) OS
Borlotti (Climbing French bean) OS
Cobra OS (Climbing French bean)
Coopers climbing bean pea HSL
Caseknife (Climbing French bean) HSL
Cherokee Trail of Tears (Climbing French bean) HSL
Dwarf French bean:
Black Canterbury HSL
King of the Early AA
Hawkesbury Wonder AA
The Prince KS
Sprite KS
Bean harvest…
OS - Own seed
HSL - Heritage Seed Library
AA - Adam Alexander
KS - Kings Seeds
Our own-collected ‘Aquadulce’ Broad (Fava) beans are planted out in early spring under protective fleece and are already thriving and podding.
Growing a variety of beans gives us many more individual bean cooking choices but, we are told, eating a variety further contributes positively to gut health.
Delicious green beans
As gardeners, growing a different kinds ‘spreads our risk’ in case of poor germination or plants failing to thrive. Last year was an exceptionally poor bean harvest for us.
Beans provide organic gardeners with the added value of having roots that add nitrogen to the soil.
We’ll wait for the germination of our wonderful beans.. And perhaps take a one-minute silence to grieve this government that was reported to have abjectly caved-in to the ultra-processed food lobby yesterday. The evidence that the eating of ultra-processed food is injurious to health is as overwhelming as it is comparable to the injurious impact of smoking on health. The ultra-processed food industry (like the tobacco industry before it) has created its own mini-industry of lobbyists to successfully argue that black is white. The health lobby won against the tobacco industry in the end. How many children must have their lives and health permanently injured before the government acts?
‘Money talks - and its persuasive’ Elvis Costello.