i really enjoyed growing these the past three years. the first year i only had a small sample to work with and to get the seed supply built up. the second year i verified they did well in most garden soils we have here and that they were good eating as fresh beans and some also dried and cooked up were good. this year i planted a large number of plants of these (a thousand plants is probably close) and we've been busy picking and shelling when the weather cooperates and i've gotten to learn more about them and their resistance to rot and if they are good as shelly beans.
yesterday was a nice day where i was out picking the beans that were ready and pulling up plants since they're pretty much done. the pods that were still plump we took the pods off and i shelled those out this morning to be cooked up as shelly beans. they're a rather mild pinto bean flavor but the texture is more creamy and yes, they're good eating. we had them as a late brunch in our burritos.
i timed how long it took me to shell out a full bucket and that was about 2hrs.
the bean with the large splotch on it (in the middle) is the only bean out of many thousands of Purple Dove that i've shelled so far that has any kind of different or odd marking as compared to the rest.
and did i mention purple flowers, red stems and veins in the leaves, an upright but bush growing habit and good root nodulation?
it's a pretty productive bean too even if the seeds are on the small side they're still productive enough to be worth growing.
the deer didn't seem to target them heavily even though they were grown outside the fenced gardens.
Japanese beetles love 'em though. i go through the gardens each morning and hand pick off the beetles.
to recap, good bean, eat fresh for a few pickings and then after that you can eat them as shellies or wait for them to dry and eat them as cooked dry beans.
these are not a plump/thick bean, they steam up pretty quick so they're probably not going to work well as a canning bean which is what we don't do with beans here (we'd rather eat them fresh or frozen). so i have not yet tried them frozen yet and probably won't but if i do i'm sure i'll mention it. after about a week to two weeks on the plant the pod will get a fiberous and bitter taste to them. the pods are purple and when cooked they'll turn green.
the water taken from cooked beans before it really gets boiled is purple/blue/pink depending upon the pH of your water and can be used as a pH indicator solution (similar to how red cabbage juice). i already know our water here is a bit hard as it does have calcium in it so when i tested it out with some apple cider vinegar it turned pink.
songbird