The clusters of mauve-pink flowers on your Amethyst DFB hint at the delight to follow – superb flavour, stringless, fantastic pencil pods in in deep purple shades. Just as the flowers were in clusters so the pods are produced in abundance from July through to the first frosts. Discover their delicate flavour picked at the smallest size for adding raw to a salad through to that gorgeous beany taste when lightly steamed.
Price for 50 seeds
SOW: start these off in pots or modules placed in an unheated greenhouse or even on a window during April or May. You can sow directly into the soil but wait until mid-May as they really do not like cold soil. You can sow as late as July for a later harvest.
GROW: plant out after hardening off when about 10-15cm tall after all frost danger has passed. Amethyst will grow no taller than 60cm and does not need support. French Beans are self-pollinating. They cope well with drier summers
EAT: pick when 4-5cm long for a delicate flavour and colour in your salad. Let them grow to 10-15cm for harvesting for cooking or freezing – they are stringless and delicious. Best steamed lightly to enjoy the best colour alongside that gorgeous beany flavour. At the end of the season the last of your crop can be shelled as a haricot for winter stews and casseroles.
These can be grown in pots on your patio, in your borders, as an edging to a path in your veg garden, you can even angle they to hang over the side of a raised bed. Use their shade by underplanting with lettuces in the summer, or plant some by your tomatoes and cucumbers to boost those crops. Enjoy their flowers and watch the insects come visiting your plot with a bumper crop to follow!.
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