British-grown bean toast could soon be on breakfast menus across the country after a bean crop was successfully harvested in the UK for the first time.
Previously, farmers had been unable to grow the variety because it was not suitable for the country’s climate, meaning the UK had to rely on imported beans to fuel its habit of producing two million cans of baked beans a day.
However, in what has been described as a “very exciting” development, scientists have now developed a specially adapted seed that can thrive in British soil.
It took 12 years and involved “one of the most stressful experiments” due to the unpredictable weather, but experts hope the result will be an ingredient loved by “baked bean-savvy” British families.
Traditionally, cooked beans come mainly from foreign markets. In the USA, Canada, Ethiopia and Porcelain because the specific climate and soil requirements necessary for its successful cultivation.
Breakthrough: British-grown bean toast could soon be on breakfast menus across the country after a bean crop was successfully harvested in the UK for the first time. The new variety of cooked beans has been named Capulet (medium, upper raw and lower cooked). The scientists also grew two other types of beans, Godiva (left) and Olivia (right).
History: Traditionally, baked beans are primarily sourced from foreign markets in the US, Canada, Ethiopia and China due to the specific climate and soil requirements necessary for their successful cultivation.
farmer andrew wardwho grew the pulses on a 13-acre field in Leadenham, said: ‘The only seed available in the world of this variety is the one we have here.
“We need to replant next year to increase the availability of British beans and reduce our dependence on imports.”
Half of the crop successfully harvested now will be preserved, while the other half will be used as seeds next year.
They can be sown in early May and harvested in September to grow in Britain’s warmer, sunnier months.
Professor Eric Holub, of the University of Warwick, said the beans had been created from “conventional plant breeding”.
He added that the new variety was bred from “legacy material that had been used here on the university farm in the 1970s and 1980s.”
Research to create a bean that could grow in Britain began around this time, with three varieties produced in the mid-1980s and named Edmund, Marcus and Adrian after Shakespeare’s characters.
One of them, Edmund, is the parent bean of the new variety that has now been successfully harvested for the first time.
He has been called Capulet to follow Shakespeare’s theme.
“The other parent was a heirloom variety that looks like a blonde bean and is known to grow in the British sun,” Professor Holub told MailOnline.
He said the key was to create a seed that would produce a variety of bean that was disease resistant, able to thrive in the UK’s summer months and would grow larger than usual so it could be better harvested by combine harvesters.
“If we had simply used a variety grown in Canada, for example, it would not be ready to harvest until about 3 or 4 weeks after the Capulet version,” explained Professor Holub, “and by then it would be too late because Britain Arrives rain.’
The University of Warwick team says the harvested beans are part of a “small-scale grassroots” project, but the aim is to increase public interest in them to offer them commercially more widely.
‘Zero plastic’ samples of Capulet beans are expected to be sold in several Midlands stores next year, with more information to come via the University of Warwick’s social media accounts.
The team behind the bean: Farmer Andrew Ward (pictured left) grew the legumes on a 13-acre field in Leadenham. Professor Eric Holub (right), from the University of Warwick, said the beans had been created from “conventional plant breeding”.
Popular: Henry Heinz launched his baked beans in the US in 1895 and brought them to the UK nine years later (file image)
Several health food brands have previously tried to market UK-grown fava beans as baked beans, but due to their difference in flavor to beans, they failed to take off.
Rebecca White, crop specialist at agricultural consultancy Agrii and partner on the project, he told the BBC that families in the UK were “baked bean connoisseurs”.
“They will only accept the familiar taste and texture of roasted beans, and this is what we have given them,” he said.
Growing beans on a commercial scale in the UK will help reduce miles traveled for food and improve soil structure, scientists say.
‘Ensuring we can produce our own food is crucial to reducing our impact on the planet. “British-grown beans can play an important role in shaping a healthier future for us all,” Professor Holub previously said.
“They are a fantastic addition to our diet and contribute to the rise of flexitarian eating habits.”
Baked beans are believed to be based on a Native American dish in which beans were cooked with fat and maple syrup.
Henry Heinz launched his baked beans in the United States in 1895 and brought them to the United Kingdom nine years later.
You are defeated! Supermarket own-brand baked beans beat their more expensive rivals in an annual blind test… So which is your favourite?
Supermarket own-brand baked beans have outperformed their more expensive brand-name rivals in a blind taste test – with two cheaper tins voted the best.
Asda’s own brand baked beans, which cost 50p a tin, less than half the price of big competitors, achieved the highest score of 77 per cent in the Which? Test taste, appearance, texture and aroma.
Supermarkets’ own-brand baked beans have outperformed their more expensive brand-name rivals in an annual test, with blind tasters voting two cheaper tins the best.
Cheaper Aldi came in second with a score of 75 per cent, while Branston’s 90p tins came in third with 74 per cent, losing points for the pulses being “too hard”.
Own-brand offerings from Co-op, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Lidl scored higher than those from Heinz and HP, which achieved 71 per cent and 67 per cent respectively.
Tasters praised the texture of the Heinz sauce and beans, but more than a third reported the flavor was “too weak.”
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