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Richard Bell’s Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Sunday, 19th October 2008
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IT AMAZES ME that, even in mid-
Borlotti beans are a wonderful crop; we’ve been eating them since July, initially like a runner bean (but they never go stringy), then, as the pods go redder and fill out, we open them and use the fresh, plump beans. Finally, when the pods go brown and dry, you can store them for the winter. Gather the pods when they’re nearly dry but before they split, spilling the beans. Bring them into the house and put them in a basket. You’ll occasionally hear them splitting as they dry out and twist, releasing the beans.
The beans are fairly dry by then and Barbara put them in the storage jar (what would
we do without Ikea?! I can’t resist those storage jars), although she initially left
the rubber-
Borlotti’s are now Barbara’s favourite bean and she’s suggesting not bothering with runners next year and growing two wigwams of them. We can use all we grow.
“They’re decorative,” she says, “like little birds eggs, speckled with red.”
They went well with pork is yesterday’s casserole.