You can eat them fresh or dried (but never raw as they contain toxins which are broken down only by cooking). It’s a peculiarly British thing to eat the pods. These have pure white beans that stay that way, whereas the scarlet beans turn brown when cooked. The runner bean is a perennial plant.

Sow bean seeds 1 inch deep and 4 inches apart in the prepared soil if you want to make a second bean planting later in the season. If you plan to make only one bean planting, then space the bean seeds 2 inches apart. Because beans are self-pollinating, they produce more heavily when planted close together.

6. When the runners reach the top of the canes, pinch out the tops (this means cutting the very tip off). This will encourage the plant to send out more shoots – and beans – below. It’s very important to keep picking running beans – as this encourages the plant to grow more.

How to cook runner beans: boil. Bring a small pan of salted water to a boil. Add the prepared beans and cook until tender, this should take about 5-8 mins. Drain.

vulgaris) this is a perennial species, although it is usually treated as an annual. In mild climates (zones 7 – 11) it a short-lived perennial vine, forming tuberous roots from which new shoots sprout annually in areas with frost where it is not evergreen. In Mesoamerica the thick, starchy roots are used as food.

If the beans are still a bit firm add a little more water and cook longer. If they’re not too big, I usually still get away with eating them. But if they’re really too big to use as green beans, you might try them as fresh shelling beans or leave them to dry on the plant to use as dry beans. Or seed for next year!

Undercooked green beans are rubbery; overcooked are mushy. If you are boiling beans, simply begin tasting them after a few minutes. As the texture softens, the green beans are closer to being perfectly cooked. When you can just bite through with no resistance, they’re done.

If you have left any green beans (such as runner beans or French beans) too long on the plant, they will be too tough to eat. However, they need not go to waste. You can remove the beans from the pods and boil and eat them on their own. You can save a few to grow next year.

Harvest green beans when they’re 4-7” in length and the width of a pencil. Most importantly, they should be firm to the touch and have no visible bulges.

Using a high concentration of salt in the blanching water (2 tablespoons per quart of water) allows the green beans to tenderize rapidly, so their bright green color is preserved. The large amount of salt in the blanching water penetrates the beans’ sturdy skins to season them more fully than smaller amounts would.

The most common way to soften dried beans is by soaking them in room-temperature water for several hours or overnight. Water initially enters the bean through the hilum, or scar, where the bean was attached to the stem in the pod.

Place beans in a large pot; cover with fresh water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently until beans are tender but firm. Most beans will cook in 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the variety. Periodically, try a taste test or mash a bean against the side of the pot with a fork or spoon.

Recipes often recommend soaking beans in water overnight before cooking. A quick-soak alternative is to bring the beans and water to a boil and let them stand for an hour or so before cooking.

Here’s the thing: Beans that have not been soaked ahead of time will always take longer to cook, but they will, indeed, cook. But timing aside, sometimes we actually like to cook beans straight from dry, as is the case with this easy black bean soup recipe.