Purple Queen Dwarf French Bean

Description

Purple Queen Dwarf French Bean. Phaseolus vulgaris.

Purple Queen Dwarf Bean has vibrant purple flowers and long, tender purple beans. Climbs up to a height of 1.8m it produces heavy yields of beans, perfect for freezing. The beans are string-less and turn dark green when cooked or add a deep purple colour to raw salads. Keep picking your beans to encourage new flowers and prolonged cropping.

A fun and tasty variety – give it a go!

How to grow:
Start them in pots indoors in April and plant out in May when there the risk of frost has passed. Or sow direct outside April/June, 5cms deep, 20cms apart and thin out. Harvest July/September. Suitable for both mechanical and hand harvesting. If you allow some to grow on, the slightly paler pods produce lovely beans to dry out, these can be stored as dried beans or kept for next years crop.

Problem solving:
Keep slugs off when young apart from that really hassle free. Sow in a moderately sheltered place.

Favourite ways to eat them:
These are tender when young so eat them whole in a salad. or chop them up and lightly steamed drizzled with olive oil and salted, or a nutritious addition to stir fries and stews. The combination of beans and rice is well known worldwide, the combination makes up a complete or whole protein – defined as a food source of protein that contains an adequate proportion of each of the nine essential amino acids necessary in the human diet. Perfect if you’re vegan!
Blanche and freeze, or dry and store for beans all winter.

Cultural history:
An ancient crop, one of the oldest we cultivated. Originating from the south and central Americas, it has been grown in Europe since the 16th century.

Avg contents: 50 seeds.