Poor Man’s Bean – The Forgotten Bean

By Ewa Bekiesch, DipSustLiv (UTAS)
Holistic Garden Designer | Real Food Advocate
YouTube & Instagram: @EwasVibes Join the conversation!
Seeds, Cuttings & Plants: foodforestseeds.au

I have the seeds available in my online shop here

Poor Man’s Bean – also known as Old Man’s Beans, Hyacinth Beans, Dolichos, Lablab Beans, Rongai Bean, and Fuji Mame.

I just love easy-to-grow vegetables, and the Poor Man’s Bean is one of them. It is a short-lived perennial, and according to a lovely lady I got the seeds from, it has been grown in Australia for a very long time. It has beautiful dark green leaves, deep pink and purple flowers, and pale green young pods. It is very hardy and forgiving, growing happily on a fence or trellis and rewarding you with huge crops. It is a very decorative plant that can also be grown in a large pot as a beautiful edible ornamental.

Information about this amazing edible plant can be surprisingly hard to find online, and seeds are not widely sold. What makes it so special is its impressive nutritional profile. Once cooked, the beans are a powerhouse of nutrition, containing high levels of protein and essential vitamins and minerals like A, B, C, Potassium, and Iron. This is a truly ancient crop, cultivated for thousands of years across the world. The young, tender pods are delicious, and because the plant produces new flowers and beans continuously, it’s easy to harvest half a bucket or more at a time. They can be stir-fried, steamed, or boiled. In many cultures, the mature dried beans are traditionally ground into flour for making nutritious cakes and breads.

Our Poor Man’s Bean plant has been happily growing over the chook pen’s outside area for over two years now. The birds love the shade and greatly appreciate the falling dry beans! Our free-ranging Guinea Fowls fly on top of it, help themselves, and also enjoy the beans.

We use the young pods in all sorts of stir-fries. As a side dish, we like to boil the young pods and serve them with sesame seeds that have been roasted in butter. Yummy! We use the dry beans as we would any other dry beans—lots of delicious dishes are possible! My favorite is with roasted onions and bacon, plus some tomato sauce and lots of herbs and spices. Delicious!

The Poor Man’s Bean has many benefits and few needs. However, it has disappeared from many Australian gardens and is now classified as a rare plant in Australia. In my opinion, it is an amazing bean to grow, and I wouldn’t want to be without it in my garden.

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