MEAT BEAN / COMMON BEAN

General information

Name: Meat bean

Type of variety : Landrace

Characteristics of interest: High protein rate

Registered in the official catalog: No 

Appearance: Undetermined row/creeper beans, stems up to 3 m high that wrap around stakes/oars, white cream seeds spotted with violet, pink and violet flowers

Biophysical environment

Soil type: Soil rather light, well drained, silty and silty cley-sandy

Climate type: Mountain

Topography: High moutain to medium mountains

Environmental Tolerance

Drought tolerance: Medium

Disease resistance and mycotoxin: Resistance to anthracnose, tolerance to BCMV and sensibility to halo bacteriosis.

Freeze tolerance : Plant sowed and harvested outside of freeze period

Weed Competition: Medium

Agronomic characteristics

Sowing period: May

Earliness at maturity:  Early

Harvest period: August

Yield level compared to specie average: Good yields

Processing Information:

Destination: Consumption as hole grains, soak then cooked in boiling water. Possibility to process in flour of good quality 

Organoleptic quality: Taste like dry fruits (nuts/hazelnut), very thin skin, melting in the mouth

Nutritional value: To determine, apparently rich in protein (which explains its name ‘Meat bean’). Once in the mountains beans were th meat of the poor.

Marketing channels

Interest in short chains: Regional crop, well adapted to its territory, good flavour with a correct yield

Ethnobotanical information

Bean listed for the first time in the Ecrins National Park in 1986, at an altitude of 1300 m, then in 2015 in the town of Saint-Aupres at Raymond Déchaux. It has been cultivated for about 100 years in this village. In 2015, it is cultivated on alluvial soil, permanently covered (mulching). Manure is added every year. The seeds are produced on site, sorted at each harvest to keep only the most beautiful (the most filled and smoothest). The beans are harvested in pods. The pods are spread flat in ventilated crates, exposed to the sun. A planting distance of 50 metres is maintained between the production of ‘meat’ beans and other varieties to maintain varietal purity. Seeds are not frozen before storage because they are not susceptible to bruche in this garden. Particularly appreciated by the family who consumes it, for its particular taste and finesse (the skin melts in the mouth), the grains are soaked 24 hours before cooking, then cooked in boiling water, sometimes with rice. During the winter, the seeds are stored in classic glass jars, without any special protection.