Vegetables - Borlotti bean

I originally bought borlotti bean seeds as an experiment, as I like to try new crops from time to time. They look startlingly exotic, but are amazingly easy to grow and pleasant to eat, so they are now one of my favourites! They are sown and harvested later than other legumes (peas and beans). A frost will kill the plants. So you must sow them after the last frost (start of May where I live). In fact, you can sow them later than that. I have two sowings, if I can find room! The garden is getting quite full by this point in the year, yet not much is yet harvested. So sometimes the second sowing is quite a bit later, once harvesting something leaves some room. But the garden dries out in the summer, so not too late.

The seeds (which are just the dried beans) are easy to handle. You sow them outside in their final location, and they germinate well, so sow them well apart. Imagine the size of the subsequent plant! Borlotti bean plants aren't as big as broad beans, so I sow them in a row, but well apart.

I don't know of any pest connected with borlotti beans, and they grow reasonably well in my garden. It's pleasant to have legumes later in the year.

I treat borlotti beans very similar to French beans, except that you eat the beans, not the whole pods. Both pods and beans have this lovely mottled colouring, although there is variation in the colouring.

One reason why borlotti beans (and all legumes, such as other beans and peas) are useful is because they fix nitrogen in the soil - see crop rotation.

I tend to freeze the beans, so I often leave the plants to almost die off before harvesting them. Even dried pods will produce beans, although I think it's better to harvest them before then. To harvest, pull off the pods and pop them open to show the beans. People use dried borlottti beans and then they take a lot of soaking and cooking. If you use them fresh, or freeze them when fresh, they don't need any more cooking than other beans or peas. Unfortunately, they lose their lovely colouring when cooked!

Seeds

Flowers

Beans

Beans ripened

Pods

Beans inside pod, showing variability

Bean starting to germinate!

Click on photos for large version.