Muristek
Why grow beans at home? It’s easy, they’re great for your health and good for the planet
Fresh, demi-sec or dried, the bean is a nutritional powerhouse. And they’re one of the easiest vegetables to grow – so no need to buy frozen or canned
It was in a food market in Oaxaca, Mexico – and after eating a particularly memorable plate of black beans with waxy, yellow potatoes at the end of a day’s hiking in the mountains – that Susan Young found herself falling hard for beans. She had seen them growing in fields and sold dried, and witnessed how embedded the bean was in Mexican culture and cuisine. So she bought a few back home to Monmouthshire – and before she knew it, a few beans turned into an obsession.
Young grows beans in her garden specifically to shell and eat either fresh, as demi-sec (semi-dried, with a unique flavour) or dried. She favours varieties from Europe: cassoulet beans from France, the borlotti of Italy, the mongeta and alubias from Spain, brown beans from the Netherlands, mottled beauties from southern Germany and cherry types from eastern Europe. She is so passionate about the power of the bean to change our diet and help the environment that she has written a book on the subject, guiding us from sowing to harvesting and cooking.
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