Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article , Chris Bacon
writes:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
I think that field beans are essentially the beans that were
a staple in Europe before Phaseolus vulgaris was imported from
the Americas. So, for a true mediaeval flavour, you know what
to grow :-)

Erm, phaseolus vulgaris? French bean, surely? Vicia faber = broad
bean. I remember this as my "local" used to have three barmaids
named Phaseolus Multiflorus, Phaseolus Vulgaris, and later Vicia
Faber. These names were singularly appropriate, if not
well-liked.

Yes, except it's faba not faber (feminine, meaning broad bean, not
masculine, meaning workman).

The staple bean of Europe up to the 15th century was V. faba, but
it was replaced fairly rapidly by the imported P. vulgaris, which
spread from the south. That is why it is called the French bean,
to distinguish it from the ordinary bean. Since then, the word
"bean" has moved to the more commonly eaten bean, and the older
ordinary bean has acquired the epithet "broad".

Self-duh! Just twigged: presumably Arabic _fasulya_ for French and
runner beans is a corruption of _phaseolus_. You mentioned "el ful"
for the refined cultivar of field beans*: my memory has just, to me
impressively, popped up that broad beans are _ful cubrussi_, or
"Cyprus ful". (But I needed the dictionary to find that the Turkish
equivalent of "spill the beans" is also an expression involving
[broad] beans!)

What I _don't_ twig is the association of haricot etc beans with the
Americas, which I've heard and read repeatedly over the years.
Classical Latin had words for them, so they must have been around for
a long time. Are our modern varieties the result of crosses with
American species?

*Got round to growing them yet?

--
Mike.