Gigantic Scarlett Runners!

Hello!
I’d like to share a picture of my close to 1 foot long Scarlett Runner green bean! I usually eat these as green beans so I don’t let them get big but I came back from a 4 day visit to my partners’ parents and found my Scarlett Runners have grown HUGE! Sharing this in case people don’t know about these beauties! I grow them because they’re resistant to Anthracnose which I’ve had issues with in the past. Now I know they can be a truly massive producer. Do with this info what you wish!

Runner beans are very good as shell beans too.

Yes, Scarlett Runner beans will get huge, but there are downsides:

1. They get tough and stringy. My cousin detests SR beans and refuses to eat them and when I asked more questions, I found out that they would go on vacation as a child and when they came home, they had to eat the overgrown beans.

2. The beans inside are quite fine as shell beans as M Ljin wrote. I particularly like them as a bean dip made based on a Hummus recipe. The friends I shared it with agreed! Again, there's a catch. The larger the bean, the more difficult to make sure they are fully dried before storing. One year, I simply cooked them fresh. Another year when I had a bumper crop, I used a fan blowing across trays of beans to make sure they dried slowly and completely. That said, I live in a relatively humid environment. This problem would be less in some dryer environments.

Lastly, slightly off topic, Hummingbirds adore SR bean flowers, not to mention I, too, love to see the bright red polka dots dotting my garden. So if you want to enjoy the company of Hummers or just pretty flowers, Scarlett Runner beans are great plants! Who says one's veggie patch can't be beautiful as well as functional?

In years past I’ve tried to let them dry out for dry beans but the season in Nova Scotia is just a bit too short for them to get fully mature, I’ve even tried shelling them and then drying them by fan like you said and they just get moldy unfortunately. As for the toughness, I have experienced this, but my dad found a very strange tool in the thrift store and gave it to me me because he knows I like old hand tools and I figured out it is a French green bean slicer! It cuts thin diagonal slices of bean which when fried negates the toughness! If you see something like this buy it!