Organic Beans, French and Haricot
Gardening Tips
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French beans can be sown early in April
under cloches, but it is the later sowings from the end of May until
early July, fitted in after other crops clear that are the best value
in small gardens. Two twelve- to thirteen-foot rows thirty inches apart
take a quarter of a pint of seed sown at six-inch intervals two inches
deep, and are ready to pick sooner than the fourteen weeks from sowing
that brings them to full shop size.
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The secret of making just two rows yield
enough for a family is to keep picking, starting when the first are
four inches long, for as soon as they are allowed to go yellow and
large, they cease production. They need no manure if they follow
potatoes on the rotation and, as Legumes, they put back more than they
take out. On poor sandy soils, dig in a pound of wood ashes to four
square yards and any compost available. On any soil where there may be
potash shortage wilt the next cut of comfrey after the potatoes have
fed and tuck it into the trench bottoms as you dig, putting it about
six inches down. An easier way is to wait until the beans are up and
place cut comfrey along the rows and between them if you have enough,
so that it suppresses weeds as well as supplying potash, as it will if
placed between tomatoes.
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There are a number of varieties that arc
stringless, with no tough fiber along the backs to make slicing
difficult, and of these 'Tender-green' and 'The Prince' arc both heavy
croppers, while 'Royalty' has blue pods that turn green when cooked,
and is the best for deep freezing.
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Haricot beans are rather larger and half
a pint sows 100 feet of rows eighteen inches apart and a foot between
seeds, sown two inches deep and staggered, so they lit together. The
object is to secure complete cover to hold down weeds, and because the
pods are left on to dry there is no need to leave space between the
rows for picking. The best variety is 'Comtesse de Chambord', which has
the thickest foliage as well as a good crop.
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Soak the seeds overnight to swell for
quicker germination (a trick worth using for French beans, especially
in dry seasons) and sow two inches deep at the end of April or before
mid-May. When they are well up draw the earth up to the stems as if
earthing potatoes and repeat this if you have time, for the stems will
need some support with a good crop.
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Pull them whole when the pods begin to
dry and wrinkle and the leaves start yellowing and falling. Tie them in
bundles and hang them, roots up, under cover to dry. When the pods are
dry enough to break put the bundles between sacks and beat them with a
stick, which is much quicker than opening by hand. Store the dry beans
in jars, for mice like them better than bought haricots and they do
have more flavor.
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The 'straw' is excellent compost
material, and this crop is a very good one for a new garden, avoiding
wireworm, holding down weeds, enriching the soil and costing far less
for seed than a potato crop. The haricots keep for at least four years,
though if wanted for sowing it must be in the next season; so the first
year in a new house can see the incoming family with haricot beans
hoarded for years ahead. The variety called 'Golden Butter' is
American, and is not a drying kind, but to be eaten as a French bean
when its pods are yellow. If you move in later than May it is still
worth sowing until July, and so is 'The Prince', at this same spacing,
to be picked green round about October for salting in jars, or
deep-freezing.
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The yield from a half pint varies, but 7
lb. of dried beans is a fair yield, and every ounce holds 6.1 grams of
protein, 11.6 of carbohydrates, 51 milligrams of calcium, 1.9 of iron,
0.13 of vitamin B1 (the same as with lentils), 0.08 riboflavin, against
0.02 for lentils (four times as much), and 0.6 mg. of nicotinic acid
(which in future will be called 'Niacin' as in America to avoid
confusion with nicotine insecticide) compared with 0.9 for lentils. So
a vegetarian who usually buys lentils can get just as good value and
rather more riboflavin by growing his own haricot beans.
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French beans, however, have only a third
as much vitamin C as green peas and only slightly more vitamin A, while
cabbage leaves both standing at the post.
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