Red carrots and Prespa’s white kidney beans

New seeds in my dirt. This week I sow my red carrot seeds and today it was the turn of Prespa’s giant white kidney beans. These big white beans are recognized as “gigantes” (pronounced YEE-ghahn-dess) and we cook them in oven with tomato sauce.

gigantes Red carrots and Prespas white kidney beans

The gigantes beans from the area of Prespa Lake in Florina are the best in Greece. They are really huge as you can see and really easy to cook. Gigantes of Prespa are recognized with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) from EE since 1994.

published by CityGarden on June 17, 2008 | Category: My container garden, Seeds 11 Comments »
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11 comments in “Red carrots and Prespa’s white kidney beans”

  • I love gigantes but cannot get seed in the UK. They are only available in cans with tomato sauce.
    I also understand they need a long growing season so may not crop well here. I’ll look for them when I go to Greece in September.


  • It looks great! I’ve never seen this kind of bean before.

    I’m pretty sure this is a kind of runner bean, and I’ve never grown runner beans. Maybe I’ll give them a try next year. Around here it’s always a lot of trouble because you sometimes need to build something 3 meters or higher to support the plants, and it’s always windy here so it needs to be built pretty strong.

    In the SSE listings I see several variations of this bean. A few of the listings say they are from Bulgaria, so they probably eat a similar bean there.


  • Lzyjo

    WOW!! Too cool, I have never seen beans like that. I want to try growing them next year if I can find the seed.


  • CityGarden

    @easygardener September is a good month for Greece. You can search gigantes from Prespa or from Kastoria (also good and with PDO).

    @Patrick the truth is that I don’t know many things about beans and I never try to grow beans before.
    I don’t know for Bulgaria’s beans, I must search to see if they have the same varieties with us, but I know that “Gigantes” is greek word and the beans grew here for centuries.
    Perhaps you can find similar varieties in the countries around the lake Prespa (Albania, FYROM) because the environment around the lakes is same.
    I buy gigantes beans from Prespa every year.

    @Lzyjo I have the same feeling for multicolor tomatoes and red carrots :)


  • Wow, that is really a huge bean. Would love to give them a try. I will have to check and see if they are available in the US. Most of my beans disappointed this year, with only the Kentucky Wonder green beans producing anything. I guess the Lima beans and black-eyed peas just don’t do well in the desert.


  • CityGarden

    @John I think it will be difficult to grew in desert. This beans grew in a mountainous part of Greece (northwest)which have many lakes and strong snow in winter. The area have… specific microclimate.
    But you can give them a try if you find some beans.
    I don’t know about seed sites but I found this in Amazon(!)(I don’t think that they are from Prespa or kastoria but ok they’re gigantes)


  • I’ve eaten them canned, in tomato and dill sauce. They are wonderful, very tender, and good hot and cold! If they need a long growing season I stand no chance of growing them here :( Our one try at growing soya beans was frustrating because of that – beautiful strong plants with beans that never quite filled out, tragic really. I’ll have to keep eating my gigantes from a can.


  • CityGarden

    @Bird more information for gigantes
    sow: end of April
    harvest: fisrt days of September
    I don’t know if I can help you with these informations.


  • Lidija

    Hello,

    Would you like to trade some seeds with me for these fantastic Gigantes of Prespa beans? These really look fantastic! I have pepper and tomato seeds, lots of them and I only grow heirlooms.
    Hope you will see my mail and answer? By the way, I live in Finland.

    Best regards,

    Lidija


  • CityGarden

    Hi Lidija and welcome!
    I was not lucky with these Gigantes beans and I don’t have other seeds now. I will search to find some of them, If I find I will send you email. But I am not sure if I can find


  • George

    I was really impressed that there are people interested in getting a hold of Gigantes Prespa Beans. It just so happens that I am a farmer of this bean in Prespa and I know for a fact that the success of this bean is due to the microclimate which Prspa offers and the soils. If anyone is interested in perchasing these beans you can look us up at http://www.prespabeans.gr. We will be happy to be of survice.


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