Beans

How many people are you looking to feed and for how long?

I usually grow Borlotti and am again this year, but I have cut down the numbers with the view to eating them as fresh beans.

Tbh you find much difference between the dried ones you can buy and your home dried crop, but picked fresh they are lovely.  They don't need a lot of cooking and are great in salads, soups, as a tapas style side dish or just as a meaty and tasty addition to any veg dish you knock up with the summer plot produce.

12 plants will give you plenty of fresh beans, but you might find it is a pretty low number for a stash of dried beans.  There are other types you can grow for dried beans which do have a superior taste over shop bought beans.  Cherokee Trail of Tears are good.  They climb, so don't take up much space and produce loads of small black beans with a great nutty flavour 

I grew Borlotti beans for the first time last year.  I must have had about 30 climbing beans and about 20 dwarf bean plants.  I had a great harvest and what really attracted me was that I could dry the crop and preserve them that way.  Made a change to freezing and pickling and all those sorts of things.  This year I'll probably grow a fair few more.