[Austin Brownlee]

I have grown French beans Broad beans and Runner beans, but can anyone tell me of another bean which i have come across ? It wa in a fancy resaurant and they were a parcell of very 'fine beans' much thinner and straighter than runner beans though i suspect they are closely related.

[snowdrops]

Could they be yard long beans?

[mumofstig]

They are short thin French beans like these
http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/dwarf-french-bean-delinel-seeds-pid1924.html

 

[JayG]

Supermarkets sell them, flown in mostly from Egypt and other African countries.

They can be handy in winter for people like me who don't rate frozen beans of any description!

[beesrus]

Thanks for the heads up on the finer bean seeds MOS, I didn't think there was a particular dwarf variety like that. Will try them next year.
However, the Egyptian fine beans are the reason I stopped using Tesco. 
Does anyone else remember their aborted attempt a few years ago to dress itself in some proper environmental clothes. They put a very obvious blue airplane on any fresh fruit and veg that was flown into the country, so as us customers could make our own mind up whether to buy it. It was so successful, sales dropped through the floor, especially the fine beans that I also had previously used. Large piles of them were seen marked down for months,

So what did our environmentally concerned supermarket do ? They removed the little blue airplane. 

[JayG]

You shouldn't really need any sort of symbol to help you work out that a perishable product grown in Africa must have been flown in to this country - air miles is a consideration for many, including me, but so is the notion of supporting the efforts of people in less prosperous countries to help feed the world and support themselves.

Life is full of such challenges to one's conscience and sensibilities these days. 

[snowdrops]

Hmm I agree with both of those sentiments but there was also the issue I believe of the water used to irrigate crops was not available to native country folk 

[Austin Brownlee]

Think the beans I have been looking for are Dwarf Safari stringless beans , a few suppliers sell the seeds including Marshalls - anyone agree or am I on the wrong track

[mumofstig]

Any French filet bean is called fine - Safari is a good example, but you still have to pick them small 

[Salmo]

I grow Safari from Suttons. Picked tiny they are wonderful. Let them grow bigger they are still good and stand a long time before getting tough.

When you think they have finished do not be too quick to pull them out. Give them a liquid feed and keep watered and they will start to flower again.

Are there any climbing French beans that will produce similar beans?

[surbie100]

My trail of tears beans have some lovely filet bean-sized pods on them. Very tasty!