The magic of planting beans and BeanMeals

From early 2023, BeanMeals will work with nearly 300 schools and local caterers in Leicestershire to boost meals eaten with beans, as well as schools and families growing themselves. The aim is to champion low fat, sugar and salt meals, all made with these healthy plant-based proteins.   

As part of the project, the University of Warwick developed two haricot beans which are suitable for UK growing – Godiva and Capulet. 

Charlotte Long, Senior Programme Manager at Food for Life, decided to experiment, growing them in her very own garden...

Half of the beans in each batch were soaked beforehand, and half were planted dry. None of the beans I planted in pots indoors made it – however, this could have been because I went on holiday for a week… an occupational hazard for any keen gardener during the summer months!  

Only one of the soaked beans came through, but the dry beans are growing well and some even have pods on already!  

Despite the intense summer heat, 5 plants survived and are thriving, with flowers too. These are a mixture of both the Godiva and Capulet beans.

I’ve been amazed at how easy they have been to grow so far. I’ve loved seeing their progress each week and the growth has been pretty quick. 

The next interesting step will be harvesting, and whether I need to leave the beans to dry on the plant. I’m already thinking this could be tricky with our UK wet weather, but we will see. I think I might need to have a chat with the Warwick Uni team for some advice. I’m learning at every step of the way."

We’ll continue to share Charlotte’s bean growing journey here and our Facebook and Twitter. 

Find out more about the BeanMeals project here.