"Bigal" wrote in message
...

'Ophelia[_8_ Wrote:
;1009309']"David Rance" lid wrote in message
...-
On Thu, 6 Nov 2014 15:11:17 Bigal wrote:
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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?

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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.

It will be interesting to find out I look forward to your report,
thanks


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