Runner beans

[subcontrabass]

My maternal grandfather was of the bigger is better school and one of the many chores visiting grandchildren were expected to complete was putting them through the destringer before Granny hacked them into chunks. Paternal grandpa liked them but granny wasn't overly keen and certainly didn't want to be bothered destringing them or trying to eat fibrous lumps so that was where I first came across the idea of picking them smaller while they were still tender, as that was the compromise they reached. It wasn't until I was able to grow my own that I got to enjoy them again.

From childhood the method was to trim the ends and the string sides with a small vegetable knife and then feed them into a bean slicer: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203543772...0bean%20slicer That way gave regular slices with no stringy bits.

[oddoneout]

Thanks for the teepee tip oddoneout - think I made it too tall, still learning.




Real Seeds are excellent, I'm keen to try unusual / heritage varieties - Millefleur tomatoes (amongst others) this year & they do have "thousands" of flowers on a truss.
Real Seeds were on "On Your Farm" two weeks ago & "Farming Today" just before that - both still on iPlayer. They also talked about the ongoing & future seed supply problems caused by Brexit / Boris (has he ever got his hands dirty?)

Brexit has caused problems for the Heritage Seed Library which cannot now send seed to some of its members, and presumably also cannot accept seed from them either.
It's the latest in a series of difficulties over the years faced by those wanting to conserve old or non-national list varieties and distribute them to the public.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Yes, the "On Your Farm" programme outlined that growers for seed cannot mature some seeds (e.g Basil) in the UK and have to import them from a grower "abroad".

Real Seeds said its proved impossible, so far, to import such seeds into Britain because of post-Brexit difficulties. British mainland seed companies have been selling their stocks this year and to expect shortages / no supply next year. So England/Wales/Scotland will get a taste of the unobtainable seeds experienced this year in Northern Ireland.

[oddoneout]

Yes, the "On Your Farm" programme outlined that growers for seed cannot mature some seeds (e.g Basil) in the UK and have to import them from a grower "abroad".

Real Seeds said its proved impossible, so far, to import such seeds into Britain because of post-Brexit difficulties. British mainland seed companies have been selling their stocks this year and to expect shortages / no supply next year. So England/Wales/Scotland will get a taste of the unobtainable seeds experienced this year in Northern Ireland.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out next year. This country gets its seed from several places including the likes of New Zealand so not all will be affected, but in recent years there has been an increase in the number of firms (new and established) offering EU sourced seed to meet the demand for different varieties and types of veg (and also I have a suspicion because the profits are better in some cases with the EU market expecting more seeds and lower prices) and that will be affected until the third country admin can be sorted out. It may be that more people discover that open pollinated seed has some advantages over F1 hybrids, but unfortunately things such as brassicas don't led themselves very well to domestic scale seed collecting.