Janet wrote:
I grew some purple-pod french beans (I don't know the name as the seed
came from a friend who had saved it). The crop was so poor I had to save
what little there was for seed to try again if we get a better summer next
year; and not much of the seed looks any good :-(

Were they dwarf beans? I have done a handful of purples the past few years
and found that although they're not prolific, they do seem to come earlier
than the others. They also tend to be very small.