Edamame beans

Its just been suggested to me that it's possible to grow edamame beans in the UK. I'm skeptical because I thought they needed tropical conditions.

Anyone know anything about them?

 

I nearly tried them this year but decided to stick with broad beans.
I got the impression they were soya beans.

 

Apparently they are indeed soya beans, but for some reason, they're called edamame beans if you pick them before they fully mature.

 

I bought some frozen ones and apart from being smaller they tasted the same as broad beans.
Might be worth trying but I don't think you would be able to plant until the weather warms up. Maybe plant the same time as runner beans.

 

That's kind of what I was wondering. I encountered them for the first time yesterday when we went out for our dinner. I found these rather tasty green beans in my side salad so asked what they were.

They were much nicer than broad beans, but it did cross my mind that that could be down to how they were prepared. I've never enjoyed broad beans but that might be because I've only ever tried the very mature beans boiled. Whereas my only experience of edamame beans was in a restaurant where they might have all sorts of flavour enhancing tricks.

 

Yeah Ive only tried them boiled, I'm assuming you pick them fairly young for salads.

 

Yeah apparently they're just immature soya beans. If you leave them on the plant til the pods start to dry and split then they're soya beans at that point.

I learned some useless trivia about them. Apparently the term edamame comes from a Japanese expression meaning 'on the stem', referring to the fact that at markets they were sold still on the stem and in their pods. This is as opposed to soya beans which would typically be sold at market shelled and dried.

I think next year I might give broad beans a go. I've never grown them before because I don't like them, but if I apply what I've learned about edamame/soya and harvest the broad beans before they fully mature then maybe I might like them more. Even if the crop goes to waste, well I've always thought that if you can keep the blackfly at bay, they're quite a pretty plant in their own right. Or I might do a bit of researching and planning to see if it's possible to grow broad beans immediately followed by edamame, because what little I think I know about each, it seems broad beans might finish just as edamame is due to go in, but I could be very wrong on that point.

 

Soya beans do not do very well in the UK. Farmers are looking for alternatives to cereals which make poor returns since the trebling of fertiliser prices; and most reports are that they are unsuitable in our climate.Research is continuing with new varieties which may change the outcome, especially in Southern counties.
See:
www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/soybean-could-help-diversify-crop-production-uk-say-scientists

However, it might be possible to grow enough for your needs.
If you cannot eat all of your broadbeans before they mature, cook and remove the outer skin;it is this which is tough and strongly flavoured.

 

Good point about carrying on after broad beans I hadn't thought of that.

I have no idea how big the plants get or if they need support, needs looking into.

With broad beans I usually go for the green seeded types rather than the white ones, this year I went for red seeded ones which are pretty good.

 

That was my first thought, but apparently there are varieties now that have been selectively bred for our climate, as long as we can give them a sheltered sunny spot, which in my case would be the front garden. I'm also intrigued by claims that they are quite drought tolerant and also tolerate poor soil, which also gives me hope for the sub optimal conditions in my front garden, being largely clay.

@pete apparently the UK varieties grow about two feet tall, and while they're technically self supporting, the advice I read was that they would benefit from a bit of support if strong wind might get them. In that respect they seem similar to broad beans.

 

Clueless, I've grown them a few times.
Grew much better in pots than in the ground.
Can definitely grow fairly well in the UK though.
Mine grew to around just under 2 feet.