One of the vegetables that I grow every year is the Climbing French Bean "Cobra". In the past I have tried several other varieties, but none were as good as this one. This year it has done well again, and has produced a very respectable crop. One of its chief attractions for me is that it produces its pods over a long period. The more you pick the more it produces. With the weather this Autumn having been very mild, the "Cobra" beans just didn't want to stop growing. This photo was taken on 22nd October:
You can see that despite the presence of lots of yellow leaves, the plants were continuing to produce flowers. The plants were covered with tiny pods, like these:
They are nothing like the long straight pods that this variety produces when at the height of its vigour, but they are still worth having. As I wrote in my Harvest Monday post this week, I took down the "Cobra" beans and their supporting bamboo canes on Saturday, because a very severe storm was forecast. In the process of doing this I naturally harvested all the remaining pods of a useable size.
They amounted to 200g, just about enough for a 2-person serving, I reckon.
So that's it for another year, as far as my beans are concerned, but I shall definitely be growing them again next year and it would take a lot to persuade me that "Cobra" is not the best variety to grow!
I love how curled they are. What a nice way to finish your year of beans.
ReplyDeleteWe grew Cobra this year after reading so much about them on your blog but as yet we haven't totaled up the yield.
ReplyDeleteI wish mine had performed that well. I need a bean that is immune to rust. I wonder if there are any.
ReplyDeleteI'm making another note! I want to grow more squeaky beans next year as the little people quite like them (this isn't the case with everything I grow!)
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting to try plant so many varieties of beans on my garden. The curly pods look so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI may try this variety next year. The dwarf ones failed miserably this year.
ReplyDeleteYour Cobra look lovely. We grew both Cobra and Blue Lake- both performed well. One variety produced a good quantity of long straight beans, unfortunately my appalling labelling meant I don't know which was which! I'll just have to grow them both again, and label them properly this time!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful beans!
ReplyDeleteHappy Gardening!
Lea