September 28 Fruit History

French beans (and their related varieties) are the most widely cultivated bean in the world, although they are less grown in Britain as the climate is too cool for many forms of this crop.
There are many other varieties of this type of bean including cannellini, kidney, flageolet 
(half-ripe pods, beans eaten like peas) and haricot (dried) beans. Haricot beans are what 
are in baked beans, just with a tomato sauce. Other famous bean dishes include the French 
‘cassoulet’, ‘salad Niçoise’, and Mexican ‘chilli con carne’.Beans, and other members of the 
legumes family, play an important role in soil. They are an important supplier of nitrogen, which they ‘fix’ in the soil via their roots. Nitrogen is essential for forming proteins needed for plant growth, especially leafy growth. The  roots of peas and beans need to be left in the soil and dug in to add the nitrogen. In crop rotation, Brassicas (cabbage family) are planted the following season after legume crops, as they are leafy crops that benefit from the extra nitrogen in the soil.