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Since farm work is slowly coming to a standstill, for our first posting of the year, we thought we would summarize our experience with one specific plant we've come to love.
Last Spring, we trialed some new plants we had never grown before. A few, like the Sunchoke, Borage and Ground Cherries have become "keepers" because of their ease of maintenance, their productivity and their value as food. However, none were as prolific as the Scarlet Runner so we'll review this plant from the beginning to its use as food and our most recent recipe: Scarlet Runner Hummus.
We started these runner beans in the dome early in Spring and by mid-April the vines were already well on their way. By mid-May, they were already flowering and we could no longer contain them.
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| Scarlet Runner shoots in Mid-April |
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| Re-potted, the same plant in mid-May |
This is the point where we made an error. For lack of space and with no proper trellis in place in the dome, we decided to transplant them directly from the dome to outside.
These plants, originally from Latin America, are sensitive to temperature. They need to be acclimatized when transferred from a greenhouse environment to the exterior. Since we did not do this, they took to our soil but were delayed in much further growth.
After an initial growth spurt in the dome we did not notice much outside. It was not until mid-Summer that the plants took off again. They were at their best on a south facing wall with a fine mesh trellis to grow on.
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| By mid-July, the vines were healthy an producing a large amount of flowers. |
The amount of flowers produced by these plants was significant. This proved to be a real benefit to us since the flowers not only attracted pollinators such as bees and even humming birds, but they are also edible. As a result, they became a standard decorative fare on our Tea Room plates.
The flowers are sweet and are reminiscent of sweet peas. And even though we were using the flowers extensively, by the end of July we were already collecting beans.
The beans can also be eaten and cooked like any normal beans. What is striking however is the colour of the seed; it is a shocking pink. Regrettably the pink colouring disappears upon cooking however the bean is very tasty and once again reminiscent of sweet peas. One great way to enjoy these is to cook them as you would Edamame (in the pod cooked in a broth) and then shelled when eating.
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| The Scarlet Runner bean...a striking pink in a green shell |
As the year progressed, we continued to get flowering well into September and by October some pods started to mature. At this point we began collecting the dried beans.
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| By mid-October, mature bean pods began to dry out. |
The dried beans were no less surprising. They are very large and resemble black or deep purple stones with coulourful striations.
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| Mature and dried scarlet runner beans. |
Of course we saved a few beans for planting next year, however we were determined to experiment with them as a food source. As such we decided to create a Scarlet Runner Hummus.
To do this, we first soaked our beans overnight (to reduce cooking time). We then boiled them until tender; it took just over a half hour. The water turned deep purple as we did this and the beans lost a bit of their colouring.
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| Cooked Scarlet Runner beans |
We had to taste them at this point and we were rather surprised. They have an incredibly nutty taste.
To make our Hummus, we decided to blend them with Olive oil and Garlic. For 575 gm of cooked beans we combined:
100 ml of Olive oil
50 ml of Lemon juice
1 clove of garlic
8 Tablespoon of Yogurt
1 teaspoon of curry powder
We added salt to taste.
Everything was blended to produce a thick paste. Note: the beans should be added a bit at a time and if necessary you may want to add more liquids and yogurt to get the consistency desired.
The resulting "Hummus" we served with a drizzle of Olive oil and some cayenne powder. We ate this with some home-made bread and were really pleased with the outcome.
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| Scarlet Runner Hummus served with our own farm bread. |
We made a large batch of this Hummus and it only lasted two days. The first question that was asked by those who tasted it: what nut did we use? The bottom line is that the beans have such a nutty flavour, the Hummus almost tasted like crushed Walnuts.
As you will note, we have also been experimenting with baking our own artisan breads. We're using a cold fermentation technique with some success. As such, we've now started our own sourdough starter (named Suzanne) and hope to create our own farm sourdough....perhaps more on this in later blog entries.
Finally, speaking of fermentation, it was time to also check up on our hard cider. We've come to two conclusions. First, twist cap bottles are not reliable if you plan to achieve a sparkling cider (flip top bottles are better). Second, adding a teaspoon of honey to a couple of our bottles made all the difference in the world.
Our cider has developed a nice foam when poured (although the "head" is very short lived) and it is now effervescent. The bubbles are not like those of commercial ciders; they are much finer and resemble a bit that of some craft beers.
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| Even with a twist cap, our hard cider has come to life |
The taste of this brew is just great. It reminds us of a flavoured wheat beer. We're so pleased with the results, we're now ready to invest in some good beer bottles and a capper.
The only comment to make here is that we are restricted in our taste profile to a common apple juice designed for drinking without fermentation. Ideally, we would like to develop a taste profile perhaps with more tannin and acidity. This is the reason for our new orchard and in a few years, this experiment will hopefully progress.
