Growing Beans: A Diet for Healthy People & Planet

Informative and very helpful overall.

This book is a wealth of knowledge and information about growing interesting and tasty beans in the U.K.. I particularly like the relaxed approach of the author and found her ‘can do’ attitude very encouraging. As well as practical guidance for growing a range of beans there is lots of background about the history of bean growing and why we should be growing beans as we look towards creating a sustainable future. Highly recommended!

As Young explains, beans - the types that you shell and store - are a sustainable source of protein, and easily grown by anyone with some outside space. That's the first thing that I like about this book: its author isn't afraid to address the looming crises in both climate and food production. Fortunately, increasing the proportion of beans in our diet is good for personal health and the planet.Like many British veg-growers, I tend to focus on beans that are eaten green in their pods (French beans, runner beans, etc), but dried beans offer a world of flavour and are easily stored for use throughout the year.Having explained all this, Young then gives practical information on growing beans. If you're a very seasoned grower then not much of this will come as a surprise, but she does offer helpful insights on how the climates in which varieties originated determine their growing needs. She talks about how plants can be brought indoors over winter and thus treated as perennials. (Just for the record, I understand that they can also be cut to 6" height then earthed up in situ to survive the winter.) She also gives advice about drying, shelling, and storage.There then follows a list of recommended varieties, with detailed information on each - its characteristics and growing needs. As throughout the book, the advice here is practical.There is some general advice about cooking (and safety in preparation), but this is not a recipe book.Finally Young lists suppliers and sources of further information.I recommend this book. Yes, you probably already know how to grow a bean plant, but the information and advice here could change your whole approach to growing and to your diet.

Love the book, very handy for reference and just the right size. It's a great help to me.

I really enjoyed reading this book. We in the UK tend not to know much about beans in this country, and this book fills in the gaps. It has useful information on growing, storing and cooking beans. It also highlights certain international varieties which are mostly not well known in this country but are worth growing. Also tells you how to obtain them.

Spoiler alert - grow Borlotti beans or Greek Gigante beans in the UK, other beans are difficult to grow or rare. End of Book.As I already know this and grow both of these beans, the rather short book at rather a high price was not much use to me. I suppose bean growing is a niche area and I should have expected a rather slim volume. But this was really poor value for money, and would be far better just to google the subject. Sorry to be so harsh but I frankly learnt nothing new and read this book in a short hour or so one afternoon.