Lapwing Bean

Kievitsboon

If there is any bean with an unsuitable name, it would have to be the lapwing bean. The bean was presumably given this name because its coloring is reminiscent of a the eggs of a lapwing bird. However, the lapwing’s egg is white with black specks, while the lapwing bean is always white with red or purple specks. Prior to World War II, they were also called Cape or Transvaal beans, early red speckled princess, speckled bean or the speckled egg bean.

This variety is a relatively early bean. It grows on a long-stemmed and hard-shelled shrub. There are both small and large varieties. One-hundred of the large beans weigh 65-75 grams; the same quantity of the smaller beans weighs 40-45 grams. The larger beans are more reddish in color, while the smaller beans tend to be more purple.

This variety was grown primarily in the provinces of Gelderland (the Gelders Valley), Utrecht, North Brabant, and in Drenthe en Groningen, where they were called bonties (roughly translatable as “specklies”). According to some records, the last commercial growers were to be found in Roelofarendsveen, South Holland, just after World War II. At the time this variety was, just as the runner bean, planted mainly as a windbreak in the tobacco-producing regions. They were also commonly called “tobacco beans” for that reason.

Today, there has been a general decline in interest for preparing and consuming dried beans like the lapwing bean and a preference for canned beans. Although a new generation of foodies is now inventing new and lighter recipes for this and other types of local dried bean varieties.