"Variations on a bean" -- by Borlotti

The title sounds like a piece of Italian Baroque music, eh?

Today I shelled the remainder of my beans, which had been drying in the airing-cupboard for the last couple of weeks. I was amazed at the wide variations in colour amongst the beans, even the Borlotti, which were all from plants of the same variety (Lingua di Fuoco).

Colour variations amongst the Borlotti

A few of the beans I had saved were not Borlotti. To be honest, these were ones that I had missed earlier in the season, and which had therefore gone past the stage where they could be used for their pods. There were some each of the Runner Bean varieties "Aintree" and "St. George", and one or two climbing French Beans "Cobra". The two types of Runners produced very different colour beans. The "Cobra" beans are the small black ones in my pictures.

These are the Runners, and the "Cobra"

These are all Borlotti

Just for curiosity I weighed the beans: there were very nearly 400g of Borlotti and about 80g of the mixed Runners and French. Hardly a massive harvest, but it was interesting growing them, Here's the whole collection on display...

The whole collection

So what am I going to do with them? I'll keep them for a month or two and then probably cook them up in something "Mexican" - I love the combination of beans and chilli (especially chipotle). I am going to set aside the five very dark-coloured beans (see first photo) and sow them next year, to see if I can get more of this very attractive colour.

"In storage"