Stringless runner beans

hague14140518 · September 2023

I'm wondering if a runner bean can be truly stringless, surely the 'string' is part of the engineering of the pod. I'm thinking of trying out Pole star or Lady Di next year. What do others think?

B3 · September 2023

The one I get in the supermarket are so I assume you can grow them

Pete.8 · September 2023

It's more to do with the age of the bean pod I've found.
You can get a really long young pod that forms quickly so you'll pick it before the stringy bit ages and toughens over the next few days.
How quickly the beans form is mostly controlled by the weather.
I quite like stringing runners, there's something therapeutic about it.

Lyn · September 2023

I like stringing beans as well, I’m not sure younger people know how to do that these days, I’ve seen them just chopping the thing in chunks, like a French bean.

Dovefromabove · September 2023

I agree @Lyn … preparing vegetables from scratch is one of the disappearing culinary arts … and yet folk go on about mindfulness … nothing so mindful as sitting in a shady corner of the garden, or at a kitchen table, and stringing runner beans, podding peas, or top and tailing blackcurrants and goosegogs 😊

hague14140518 · September 2023

I agree Lyn and Dove. Stringing beans is no great hassle. What are your tips for determining whether a bean is worth picking or not. I love to eat the mature beans of ones that are too old to slice, but I also know that if you keep picking them immature you increase productivity.

philippasmith2 · September 2023

I don't grow Runner Beans but even the dwarf and climbing beans can have "strings" if left on the plant long enough. Same with Sugar snap peas. Easy enough to deal with and I'd say it is a pleasant "mindless" task rather than "mindful" whatever that actually means

Busy-Lizzie · September 2023

I really like the stringless runner beans that I've grown this year in my garden in France. The usual English sort of runner beans aren't available here and, since Brexit, bringing the seeds back is forbidden. They are tender, stringless, flat, and tasty and they have carried on cropping through the hot weather. However, germination was quite poor and I had to sow them twice.

Dovefromabove · September 2023

Isn’t that it tho? Simple repetitive tasks free up the creative part of the brain and allows us to think properly.

hague14140518 · September 2023

pansyface said:

Smuggling?

Just what we need.

Why do you suppose phytosanitary certificates exist?

Even without smuggling we have had ash dieback and Dutch elm disease.

Well, it was a bit tongue in cheek and also a last resort. Do you actually think that Dutch elm or Ash dieback are the result of smuggling. And do you believe that a plant grown from seed across the whole of UK will provoke disaster in France? A sense of proportion is required. But by all means go without wide ranges of food, if that's what you think is right.

philippasmith2 said:

I don't grow Runner Beans but even the dwarf and climbing beans can have "strings" if left on the plant long enough. Same with Sugar snap peas. Easy enough to deal with and I'd say it is a pleasant "mindless" task rather than "mindful" whatever that actually means

Do try Sugar Ann

Dovefromabove · September 2023

Smuggling seeds is illegal. There are sound scientific reasons for that. I presume you think that you know best so the law doesn’t apply to you.

Just as the speeding driver knows best … they’re a better driver than everyone else so they don’t have to keep to the law.

Dangerous arrogance.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/plant-health-in-gardens/protect-your-garden/new-pd-risks

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/export-plants-and-plant-products-from-great-britain-and-northern-ireland#exporting-from-great-britain-to-the-eu-switzerland-or-liechtenstein-and-moving-goods-to-northern-ireland

Stringless runner beans

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