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Bigal · 07-11-2014, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ophelia[_8_]

"David Rance" lid wrote in message
...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2014 15:11:17 Bigal wrote:

A good crop of runner beans thanks to a 5 year old bed of biochar.
(sorry, I just had to put that in.) So much so that I got fed up with
eating them, freezing them and picking them. I tell my neighbour to
help herself, but she is a bit loathed to do so. So I just let them
grow, thinking to shell them later to use the beans some other way. I
grew White Lady from saved seed, and a few weeks ago saved some more. No
black ones. During the shelling I found one that contained jet black
beans. In all my years of gardening I have never come across a black
bean before, and I don't ever recall my father doing so.. (Taking
account of the fact that the beans are eaten green).. By the time I
had finished shelling (between jobs) I had found a total of eighty.
Two of the pods were still joined on the flower stalk, which makes me
think that it was a single plant that produced them. Comments
please, and I am sure that it wasn't the black leaking out of the
biochar.

I have had some black runner bean seeds now for over ten years. They
originally grew from the usual two-coloured ones but I thought that black
was unusual so I selected them and now always grow them.

Occasionally they revert to the normal two-coloured seed but mostly they
are all black. And a pod of two-coloured seeds would come from the same
plant that produces the black ones.

I've no idea what variety they are.

Do they taste different and do they keep their colour when cooked?

--
Help for Heroes

If they grow true next year I should have enough to be able to do a tasting and a cooked colour check. As I only intend growing the black ones next year , I will have to hang on to some of the white beans from this year for taste comparison.