Italian Pea and Bean Seeds
Peas and beans are the crop that rewards an Irish garden most reliably. They want cool, damp, steady weather, which is the one thing this country can be trusted to deliver.
They also feed the soil while they grow. Both fix nitrogen at the roots, so the bed they leave behind is richer than the one they went into. Follow beans with a hungry brassica and you will see the difference.
Climbing beats dwarf on a small plot
A climbing bean produces far more from the same square metre than a dwarf one, because it grows upwards. Give it a wigwam of canes or a length of netting against a fence and one row will keep picking from July to the first frost. Dwarf varieties are quicker and need no support, but they crop once and stop.
Borlotti is the Italian one worth knowing. Grown on for the dried bean rather than the pod, it is the backbone of pasta e fagioli and minestrone through the winter. Pick the pods when they are streaked red and cream and the beans inside are fully formed.
Broad beans and the autumn sowing trick
Broad beans are the only vegetable you can sow in late October and forget about until spring. Sown in autumn they sit through the Irish winter, get going in February and crop in May, well before the spring sown ones. They also dodge blackfly, which arrives after the autumn sown crop has already set its pods.
Sowing notes for Ireland
Sow peas from March, beans from May. Beans are the important distinction: they will rot in cold wet soil and Irish soil in April is both. Wait until the ground has genuinely warmed, or start them in pots indoors and plant out after the last frost. The when to sow guide has the full calendar.
Mice and pigeons take more pea seed in Ireland than any pest. Start peas in a length of guttering under cover and slide the whole row out when the plants are established.
Water properly once the flowers appear. That is the moment when the pods are filling and drought at that stage costs you the crop.
Pick constantly. A plant that is allowed to ripen its seed stops making new pods.
Garden to table
Peas raw in the garden, half of which never reach the kitchen. Green beans blanched and dressed with olive oil and lemon. Borlotti simmered slowly with garlic, sage and good oil.
These are open pollinated heritage varieties from Franchi Sementi, so you can save your own seed at the end of the season. Packets start at €3.50 and delivery is included on orders over €40. Seed registered with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, posted by An Post from Co. Longford.