[suziequeue]

I have had great success making baked beans from dried haricot beans but next year I want to grow my own haricot or cannellini beans for an even smaller carbon footprint. I can't seem to find them in any of the seed catalogues.


Can anybody recommend what I should be looking for? Ideally I would like to grow climbing beans but if draw for bush varieties are the only option then Amen.

[Clarebelle]

Have you read the descriptions for each bean? I've got some czar runner bean seeds from d t brown and it said in the description they can be left on the plant until dried and used as butter beans.

[pgkevet]

I stuck 'cannellini seeds' into google and got many hits:

£1.46 for 75 seeds: http://www.jungleseeds.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d53.html

also

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/pea-and-bean-seeds/bush-bean-fagioli-nani-impero-bianco-cannellino-bean-vita-sementi-italian-seeds/gww0209TM

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/CANNELLINI_BEANS_UK_only/p1834925_8313252.aspx

[Olly398]

I just grow climbing beans, one is a normal green type and the other an interesting one called Cherokee Trail of Tears.
When they are young I eat them green and when I am fed up with them I leave them to swell and dry on the plant and thresh them to get haricots. Spread them out in the greenhouse for a few days and store in airtight jars. Use just like normal dried beans, yum.

[Greenerlife]

I grow Cherokee trail of Tears as well and keep them as dried 'black' beans, but they won't do for baked beans IMO.  I also grow the seeds of Italy canellini and borlotti - both good for drying, although I love them fresh so not many get to be dried!

[cloddopper]

Years ago I used to grow  beans called " navy beans   " .
 They are supposed to be the bee's knees for making baked beans because Cross & Blackwell as well as Heinz use them on their BB in tomato sauce

I don't know if they are UK available any more

[suziequeue]

Thanks Clodhopper. I think that is going to be the only option. I found some on eBay in Nebraska!!! (They don't ship to UK but I have a USA forwarding address so that shouldn't be a problem). Hopefully I will only need to buy one packet and then I can save beans from year to year.

 I have just made a batch of baked beans using cannellini beans and I prefer the haricot beans.

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

As I understand it there is a lack of available haricot/navy bean varieties that are adapted to growing in the UK environment, hence the problem (ongoing research and trials are, apparently, trying to find an answer). The Latin name for navy beans is Phaseolus vulgaris - Victoriana nursery sell one, but it might be best grown under cover (polytunnel) to given them the longer growing season for your purposes...
http://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/Climbing_French_Bean_Seed_Fasold/

[RUSTYME]

You could just buy a 500g packet of haricot beans and sow some for growing and eat the rest .  You have to check that they are gm free , but nearly all dried beans sold for food that i have sown , have grown , you just don't have a named variety .
The type they use in bb i think are grown in europe , but they will grow here in uk but not on an agricultural scale .
Just a matter of avoiding the frost i think , but i grew them ok from a packet of dried haricot beans , and the beans i kept from the harvested crop grew fine and true to type , but one year cows got in and ate the lot .
When i made bb with them i used passata with herbs and garlic added .

[HesterF]

I've been growing these this year:

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/vegetables/vegetable-seeds/pea-and-bean-seeds/climbing-bean-borlotto-lingua-di-fuoco-firetongue/286TM

which say they can be dried and used as haricot. I chose them mostly because I brought some firetongue beans back from Switzerland which didn't work too well here but wanted to try some adapted for the UK. I've used them fresh so far and they're great but I would guess bigger than baked beans, even when dried.