The Crimson or The White

Way back in February I sowed my first ever crop of broad beans, and in recent weeks I'm delighted to say I've been getting a generous and long lasting crop. I selected the Crimson Flowered variety as I like the idea of growing something a bit different, especially old varieties - 'heritage' varieties - of any fruit and veg. It means there are more varieties of everything, and as far as I understand it, bio-diversity is always good thing. But even better, the thrifty or cost-restrained gardener can save seed from one year's crop and reliably get the same variety again, year after year!  

Anyway, I was happy with my 'little bit different' broad beans. I'd read they were wonderfully fragrant and loved that idea. Disappointingly however, as far as I could tell they had no fragrance at all. This remains a mystery to me, but I guess you can't have everything, and getting a crop of beans was the main point after all.

I sowed all my beans in homemade newspaper pots - we have lots of newspaper going spare at home and it means you don't have to disturb the newly developed root system of your precious seedlings when time comes to plant them out. Usually they recommend two seeds per pot, but I took a risk and just planted one in each. To my delight every single seed germinated - maybe broad beans are always reliable germinators but even so, this was an impressive performance (based on this I shall certainly be buying Sutton's Seeds again).

I was surprised then, when the beans came into flower, to find that I had a couple of rogue white flowered plants.

This was fine of course - I suppose it's easy enough to get dried broad bean seeds mixed up. They're still broad beans right? And it gave me a nice chance to compare the performance and quality of the beans. 

First off, the white flowered variety (I guess I will never know what they are) were definitely a taller plant, not much, but certainly noticeable.

Once the beans set it soon became clear that the white variety generally had more beans per pod. The crimsons had quite a lot of one or two bean pods, but the whites didn't produce any pods with fewer than three beans. I didn't count it out, but on balance I'd say the crimsons had more pods per plant though.

More interestingly though, when podded side by side they are a decidedly different colour too. See for yourself. What a fabulous zingy green the crimson broads have, compared to the white!

But what about the all important taste? Well, for me, despite the crimsons having fewer beans per pod, and generally fewer bean pods, they win out in the flavour stakes. Noticeably sweeter fresh off the plant at any rate. And in the interests of research, I double checked with these actual beans a few days after taking the photo, and that extra sweetness was still there. On balance, I think I like my Crimson beans a little better so far.

Now, one more possible difference. I know broad beans can be sown in autumn to stand over winter to give an earlier crop. However, my packet of crimson seeds definitely says to sow in early spring (which I did). But the lure of an earlier crop is too strong, so I shall definitely be sowing a different variety soon, and save my crimsons for the spring. Who knows, I might find out if there is a 'best broad bean' out there - there isn't such a thing of course, growing food crops is way too subjective and variable a thing to make such a sweeping judgement. I might though (if I haven't already) find the 'best broad bean for me'.