Dry beans, Bush 'Barangeon Kidney Beans'

The Barangeon Kidney Bean is a beautiful, slender, small pink/red bean with elegant marbling. This old, rediscovered bean comes from the Barangeon valley, in the north of Cher (France), and is highly prized for its flavour.

Culinary
The Barangeon Kidney Bean remains firm and crunchy after cooking and is a very flavourful bean. It also has particularly interesting nutritional qualities, with a high antioxidant content and high protein content. Traditionally eaten in soup, sometimes with meat, but since the 1950s also frequently in vinaigrette as a main course salad.

History
The Barangeon Kidney Bean does not appear in the archives of 20th-century seed catalogues; its cultivation was limited to its area of origin, the Barangeon Valley, and the seeds were exchanged directly between gardeners. Thanks to collected testimonies, its history could be reconstructed after its rediscovery in 2008.

Its presence in the Barangeon Valley is thus evident from the 1900s. The variety took off in 1940-1950; it was mainly produced for family consumption. If the harvest was good, it could be marketed, either in small local markets, or in Bourges or Vierzon. This bean was a delicacy: it was eaten once a month and at festive meals. In Vignoux sur Barangeon, the village inn prepared it for meals at weddings and communions.

In 2008, Fanny Moyse, then a two-year employee of URGC (L'Union pour les Ressources Génétiques du Centre-Val de Loire), discovered the existence of this variety... at her grandfather's house! A long process of collecting testimonies, seeds, and cultivation tests followed. The variety was included in the catalogue by the URGC in 2017.

Plant
It is a vigorous variety. The variety is a dwarf bean (bush type), but the plants sometimes have climbing tendencies! The pods are green-yellow, speckled with pink. The seeds are pink marbled with red when harvested; the colour then changes over time to red, marbled with darker red.

Dry beans are harvested in different ways. Some varieties are also edible with the whole pod, while others can only be eaten fresh or (matured) dry. Tip for storing dry beans: to prevent any bean weevil eggs from hatching, place the well-dried beans in the freezer for 24 hours.

Denominations:
Latin: Phaseolus vulgaris
Dutch: Barangeon Nierboon
Also known as: Droogwinners
English: Dry Shelling Beans