Friday, July 31, 2009

Scarlet Runners

So a while back I was talking with my mom about the garden and the subject of scarlet runner beans came up. My mom had never heard of them. It occurred to me that possibly other people have not heard of them as well. Well the plant below near my lovely wife is a half dozen or so scarlet runner vines twisting up an obelisk.

As you see below the beans can be quite prolific. We have been picking them young for fresh green beans. But now that the dragon tongue and borlitti beans are coming along we have been letting them get a bit bigger.




We discovered that the beans can be shucked out of the pods and boiled quickly. It takes a bit of work and the skins toughen when boiled so you still need to slip them from their skins but they make a nice addition to three bean salads.



And since they look so nice before they are boiled here is another picture of the beans before they are boiled.



And after all that they can be dried and used in soups and cassoulettes as well.
So there you have it. Scarlet Runner Beans.

3 comments:

Mr. H. said...

We grew scarlet emperor and painted lady runner beans for the first time a couple years ago and loved them.

They do indeed make for a great dried bean. The trick to getting a great yield on runner beans is to keep picking them, once you stop so do they...more or less.

They are a beautiful bean though, aren't they. I think you are right and few people are aware of them as I rarely see any in others gardens.

Also, we have noticed this year that the hummingbirds just love them. That in itself is a good reason to grow the beans.:)

Frustrated Farmer Rick said...

Yeah I have t say that I am a big fan of the runner bean.

Mr. H. which variety did you prefer? I think ours are painter lady but I honestly don't remember.

Mr. H. said...

I think the painted lady beans did a little better than the scarlet emperor but I can't quite recall. I know that they both did really well and made up a large portion of our dried beans this last winter.