purple dove beans
 

we finally had enough to pick yesterday to cook
up and try out.

first of all these are a bush bean, upright habit,
beans are fairly far off the ground (higher than most
other bush beans i grow), bright purple flowers, red
stems and darker leaves, dark purple beans (easy to
see to pick), they flower heavily and bear pretty well
based upon last year's first grow of the seeds. and
early is also a good feature to make sure they can
finish up the dry seeds before it gets into the fall
cooler and rainy weather here.

last year i sampled a few when fresh to see if they
were good as a fresh/snap bean and they were very
tender, sweet and mild. so the plan for this year was
to grow a lot of them to see if they were as good as
those few beans indicated.

these were originally marked as a dry bean, but now
we're very happy eating them fresh too.

when i can hand one to Mom and she'll eat it fresh
and say "Yummy!" we probably have a keeper.

when i cooked them up yesterday i nuked them for
8 minutes and they were perfect. a regular batch of
green and wax beans may go from 13-15 minutes.

the downside to these beans is if you have Japanese
Beetles around they can be a magnet crop for attracting
them. i just pick the bugs off a few times a week in
the morning.

aside from the JB attractant trait the rest of the
traits of this bean are ones i am glad to have in my
mix of beans that i grow so i will continue to grow
these each season and plan on having fun watching some
new crosses appear.

i have not yet had enough dry seeds to cook them up
as a dry bean, but perhaps this fall there will be
enough for that. they did bear very well last year for
just the few plants i had growing.

the seeds are also attractive.


songbird

purple dove beans
 

On Saturday, August 10, 2019 at 12:26:22 PM UTC-4, songbird wrote:
we finally had enough to pick yesterday to cook
up and try out.

first of all these are a bush bean, upright habit,
beans are fairly far off the ground (higher than most
other bush beans i grow), bright purple flowers, red
stems and darker leaves, dark purple beans (easy to
see to pick), they flower heavily and bear pretty well
based upon last year's first grow of the seeds. and
early is also a good feature to make sure they can
finish up the dry seeds before it gets into the fall
cooler and rainy weather here.

last year i sampled a few when fresh to see if they
were good as a fresh/snap bean and they were very
tender, sweet and mild. so the plan for this year was
to grow a lot of them to see if they were as good as
those few beans indicated.

these were originally marked as a dry bean, but now
we're very happy eating them fresh too.

when i can hand one to Mom and she'll eat it fresh
and say "Yummy!" we probably have a keeper.

when i cooked them up yesterday i nuked them for
8 minutes and they were perfect. a regular batch of
green and wax beans may go from 13-15 minutes.

the downside to these beans is if you have Japanese
Beetles around they can be a magnet crop for attracting
them. i just pick the bugs off a few times a week in
the morning.

aside from the JB attractant trait the rest of the
traits of this bean are ones i am glad to have in my
mix of beans that i grow so i will continue to grow
these each season and plan on having fun watching some
new crosses appear.

i have not yet had enough dry seeds to cook them up
as a dry bean, but perhaps this fall there will be
enough for that. they did bear very well last year for
just the few plants i had growing.

the seeds are also attractive.


songbird

Do the beans stay purple when cooked?

Paul

purple dove beans
 

Pavel314 wrote:
....
Do the beans stay purple when cooked?

no, i don't know of any of the purple
beans that will stay purple when cooked
(they are darker green).


songbird

purple dove beans
 

songbird wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:
...
Do the beans stay purple when cooked?

no, i don't know of any of the purple
beans that will stay purple when cooked
(they are darker green).

ok, i asked someone who would know better
and he said he didn't know of any of the
purple beans that would stay purple when
cooked.

and then i looked up why and found out
that it has to do with the acidity of the
cell which contains the pigment. in that
article it suggested soaking them in
vinegar before cooking and cooking as
little as possible.

the purple dove beans are so tender they
are excellent eaten fresh and crunchy which
would be another way to eat them and still
have the color. perhaps take them and
slice them very fine with a vinagrette and
a bit of red onion and some bacon and you'd
have a good combination. of course leave
off the bacon or onion or as they say
adjust to taste. :)

what caught my interest in them last year
beyond the color was how tender they were
when i sampled a few.


songbird