Growing South... Notes from Plot 14

Hello old bean...

JANE

Wilbraham

Jane Wilbraham is a multi-disciplinary artist, proud plotholder of Plot 14 and committee member for the Longton Nursery Allotments Association.

The self-managed Longton Nursery Allotments, a 2-minute walk over the road from us here in Sydenham is one of the joys of our neighbourhood.
Much-deserved winners of the Lewisham Best Allotment Site 2019!

We love being able to use Jane's produce from Plot 14 in our menus, and as she's taught us all such a great deal we thought it was time to start sharing Jane's green-thumbed notes from the allotment with you all.

This week Jane has been harvesting her beloved beans, and has finally figured out how to avoid the glut.
BW.

Hello old bean…

Back in the mists of time, in the first growing season on my allotment, I planted a wall of twenty-four plants of ‘Celebration’ runner beans bang smack in the middle of the plot. I blame the over-excitement of finally having some space to grow veg coupled with rosy childhood memories of abundant summer bean rows in my Uncle Dennis’s vegetable garden in rural Shropshire.

The showy, salmon pink flowers were a feast for the bees and the following tsunami of beans that we struggled to eat, freeze, pickle and redistribute between 161, friends, neighbours and the often bemused bus drivers on the 356 route from allotment to home would come to be referred to as ‘The Tyranny of Beans’.
The lesson of the glut taught me that having the luxury of a limited amount of growing space is as much about planning as planting.

It is a peculiarly British fancy to grow a bean purely for its pod and not for its seeds, which is a far more productive way to grow when you think about it, especially if you always want to make room to squeeze in yet another variety of something you haven’t tried before that might suit the Longton Nursery micro climate.

Which brings me to the ‘Pea Bean’. As the rather unimaginative name suggests, the pods are small and swell much like pea pods, and they can be eaten young, but those fat little half purple, half white beans are beautiful and delicious! This is a plant that was widely cultivated in Britain for many centuries (it features in Gerard’s Herbal, pub. 1597) but it fell out of favour after WW2.
Why?! I blame the runner, trampling over all other beans in its charge towards the finish line.

In 2020 I’ve grown Coco Sophie, Purple Coco and Pea-Bean, along with bush French beans, and borlotti’s (bush and climbing), and I’m planning next years selection already, having saved some seed from our favourites. Pea-Bean, you’re in, you too Coco Sophie. But could 2021 see the return of the runner on plot 14?
Specifically, a runner that’s been around since 1885, with pods that can be eaten small or left to grow, the shelled beans being somewhat similar to a butter bean.
Hello, ‘The Czar’, I think there might be room for you...but not twenty-four of you.

Jane Wilbraham, 1st Oct 2020
@lnallotmentsse26
Longton Nursery Allotments