Although the UK doesn’t have the best weather to grow as much fresh produce as we would like, if you’re a lover of baked beans, it could all be about to change.
Thanks to a new scientific discovery, haricot beans (also known as baked beans) could be grown in the UK which until now hasn’t been possible due to the climate.
However, scientists from the University of Warwick have developed a seed that could assist in the growth of the plant after 12 years of research, reports The Mirror.
Baked beans could be grown in the UK for the first time
Imagine choking on your coffee at 06:25 because Wardy appears on @BBCBreakfast Well done #OldBean 👏 great story on the hericot beans being grown #bakedbeans growing in Lincolnshire. @wheat_daddy pic.twitter.com/WLbWAk8xRd
— @No1sunkfarmer ©️ (@no1sunkfarmer) June 16, 2023
Andrew Ward, a farmer in Lincolnshire who will be attempting to grow the beans, said: “It’s the first commercial scale planting of a variety of haricot beans that could end up in a can on everybody’s supper table.
“At the moment we don’t have any beans that are grown here that are suitable for baked beans, our climate isn’t right for producing this type of bean.”
The research is the latest stage in the process from the university which has revealed the seeds will be sown in early May and harvested as a dry grain before autumn arrives in the middle of September, explains The Mirror.
Professor Eric Holub, from the university’s Life Sciences department, said: “The work that I have been involved with started in 2011, but actually it was inherited material that had been used here on the university farm in the 1970s and 80s.
“It was put into storage, and it was 2011 that I realised that there was some valuable material and I started reviving it.”
Our baked bean story live on @BBCRadioFive this morning with regular updates up to harvest on #WardysWaffle on YouTube ⬇️ https://t.co/y8JJ8Fgl9T
— Andrew Ward 🇬🇧🚜 (@wheat_daddy) June 16, 2023
Professor Tim Lang from City, University of London, added: “It has been a desperate desire of the British food industry and baked bean manufacturers to have a British baked bean for decades.
“When I started in food policy 40 years ago, people were wanting this.
“It’s crazy shipping a little bean halfway round the world just to put it in a tin can with some tomato sauce.”
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