I’ve been planting out ‘Czar’ beans, a variety of runner bean. This versatile bean can be eaten as a regular runner bean, but I leave it to grow on and harvest in the autumn as a dried bean for storing over winter. It is delicious. Soaked overnight to rehydrate, then boiled until tender (about 25 minutes), I use it to make pates, hummus, soups, stews and ‘nibbly beans’: tossed in oil with salt, pepper and smoked paprika, then baked in the oven for about 15 minutes, yum!
I start all my tender beans in modules of compost first so that when they are planted out at around