Flageolet Beans
For the successful production of this delicate crop, many factors need to be carefully managed. Firstly the land must be carefully selected to be suitable for Flageolet. Good fertile soils that are free draining are required. The land must be ploughed in the autumn so the soil can naturally weather down by the spring, ready to be cultivated into a well-prepared fine and moist seedbed. Seed is then placed into the ground using a special type of seed drill to ensure the sowing depth and plant spacing is very accurate. Varieties are carefully selected, so that only varieties that produce the ‘fine’ beans are sown. Flageolet must be sown late enough to avoid the chance of late frost, but as early as possible to make sure the harvest is ready in late summer and not running into the autumn.
Harvesting in the late summer will make sure the quality is at its highest. Flageolet then grow quickly if the soil has been prepared in the best possible way. The Flageolet will take 100 days to reach the optimum time for harvesting. Harvesting of Flageolet is a very specialist operation, requiring the same attention to detail required at sowing, or any other operation to nurture the crop. The harvesting will only take place when the condition of the Flageolet is exactly right dry matter. At this point the flageolet must be harvested quickly to keep the beans in their prime condition and tender. Special bean harvesters, designed to handle the Flageolet very carefully, carry out harvesting. The Flageolet beans are shelled from the pod and are transferred from the harvester to a trailer, before being transported to be blanched and frozen within 150 minutes of being picked in the field. By doing this the Flageolet are guaranteed to be field fresh when eaten, just like they have been picked fresh from the pod.