[mumofstig]

My mental notes always seem to get lost in space as well   

[AnneB]

I am very lucky.  I grow Gordon's special stringless, a variety kept going for years by another plotholder on our site.  Good flavour. 

I also grow The Czar for dried beans.  They are prolific but a bit stringy fresh,

I also like Prizewinner.   I was given some of these at an event at work and hoovered up the unwanted packets.  Quite tasty and not stringy.

All this means I am growing too many! 

[pigguns]

I had my first beans tonight- boiled and added to a dressed spinach warm salad, a mix of french climbing and Painted Lady runners.  The runners were really awful I have to say, which is a shame as I have loads of pretty flowers! Hopefully my dwarf purple beans will come through for me.  Will watch this thread but may just go for climbing french next year unless someone convinces me otherwise.

[wighty]

We prefer French beans as we got fed up of the stringiness of runner beans but buy a carrier bag full of Brightstone beans from the man down the road for a fiver.  These are an Island runner bean which originally came off a ship which beached at Brightstone in about 1800 and the villagers pillaged the cargo of beans.  They grow black but become green when cooked.

[heygrow]

I can't understand people not liking their runners. This years White Lady and previous years Lady Di all tasted great, but I love runner beans....could eat a bath full!

That said I think the Lady Di were better and more consistent growers producing long abundant pods over about two months. This year the White Lady started well, but seem to get a few smaller and less developed pods along with the big ones. Maybe it's the dryer weather this year and not the variety?

[Sparkyrog]

Runners need water 

[pigguns]

Runners need water 

I did the paper under the compost trench thing.  And they got the best attention water wise.  Maybe I need to get a cutty slicer gadget like my mum had.

[mumofstig]

did you cut the strings off before you cut them into slices?
Unless you pick them when they're quite small or have a truly stringless variety then you have to 

[JayG]

Maybe I need to get a cutty slicer gadget like my mum had.

NO - DON'T DO THAT!!!   

If you use a knife which isn't too sharp to cut them into "diamonds" ( ) the first cut won't go all the way through and if you pull the end (which will either be the stalk or "end bit" and can be chucked away) it will strip any string out from along the full length of the bean. Repeat from the other end to remove any string from the other edge.

Sounds tricky, but it comes with practice, and in reality you soon get to know whether your beans are likely to be stringy or not (IMHO White Lady are never stringy unless they've been left on the plant for far too long.)


(Moi, obsessive?    )

[Sparkyrog]

The old argument 

[Tom Hill]

We have been short of rain but the runners are delicious.
Streamline, White Lady, and Crusader.
They do like a drink of limed water.