Bean, Broad – Martock

€2.95

Description

The Martock bean is an ancient broad bean variety. In fact, it is the oldest recorded vegetable variety dating back to the 12th Century where it was grown in the village of Martock in Somerset. It is likely that this was the bean grown in Roman times and used for the Roman voting system – black beans for “NO” and brown beans for “YES”. The dried seeds of the Martock bean keep for many years and eventually turn black.

Last year I got a handful of pods from a gardener at the Botanic Garden where they are grown in their Viking Garden.

The plants grow like the broad bean but the pods and seeds are much smaller. One recognizable feature of this variety is the fact that the pods are pointing upwards on the plant.

The seeds can be eaten fresh like the broad bean seeds or dried and stored for the winter and then soaked overnight before cooking.

These are such little gems and will hopefully be grown by many gardeners and thus kept alive maybe for another few hundred years.

Sowing:

Sow directly in drills outdoors (5cm deep) from late February until late April.

Spacing:

20cm x 30cm

Approx. seed count: 20