chris French wrote:

In message , brian mitchell
writes
A friend who's fairly knowledgeable about food thinks the beans that
Heinz use in their baked beans are cannelloni (sp?) beans. Can anyone
confirm, or definitely state otherwise?


I think you mean Canellini Beans ?

No doubt.

I thought that Heinz BB used Haricot beans, but I'm not sure there is
really any great difference. Canellini Beans are small creamy/white
beans and Haricot are small creamy/white beans.... I guess both are just
different varieties of French Beans - though Canellini are 'Italian'
beans.

If it's so, can they be grown in the UK, and where would one get
seeds/plantable beans?


French Beans are easily grown in the UK. Any seed suppliers will have a
variety of them. Just choose a variety that gives the required type of
bean - Lots are dwarf beans - which are low growing and don't require
supports. We prefer to grow climbing ones - they need support, but get
much better yields per area. We've grown the variety Blue Lake has small
white Haricot type beans.

I always thought they were haricot beans too, but last year I grew both
climbing and dwarf french beans and let some mature for shelling and
neither looked anything like the Heinz bean. This clearly calls for some
research.

However, it all seems faff to me for the amount of beans you get, and
fresh green French beans are much to yummy to waste :-) I'd just eat the
beans green and then buy the driedHaricot/Cannelini beans from the
supermarket/wholefood shop.

Would they germinate or have they been processed in some way? I do eat
the beans green but I'd also like have some own-grown ripened beans to
dry. I'm interested in the whole food cycle.

Thanks for the fullsome reply.

Brian Mitchell