On Mon, 2 Mar 2020 13:34:13 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article , Primrose wrote:

Well that is a mystery to me, you want Heston Blumenthal on your case,
he loves a challenge.;-)

I read somewhere that hard water can cause beans to be a bit tough but I
can't really believe that as I've cooked beans for years and I live in a
hard water area!

It's specifically Borlotti and, I believe, mainly ones of older than
a year. I shall be testing that in due course. My water isn't
more than mildly hard.

Is it possible that Borlotti simply don't age as well as other
varieties? Are older-than-a-year Borlotti beans able to germinate, for
instance?

I usually have quite a stock of old beans (5+ years!) and, when I find
they won't germinate, neither will they soften through cooking.

David

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David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK