Bean there, done that

Alastair and Laura Mitchelson took their nine-week-old son Ted for a walk through a bean field on Friday, knowing that the following day the crop would be harvested and off to Simplot where they are snap frozen within a few hours of picking.

It’s a scenario Alastair knows well, having grown beans for many years, on the same farm, Colynn, that his family has farmed since 1887. 

And if little Ted is already traversing the rows, albeit blissfully asleep, he could well be the sixth generation of Mitchelsons to choose farming one day.

The beautiful 330ha property at Quamby Bend, about 10km north of Westbury, is flanked by the Meander River and is set beyond the iconic hedgerows on the outskirts of town.

With the sun sinking low towards the Great Western Tiers, setting a striking backdrop for 20ha of lush green bean plants, Alistair gently handed his son to his wife and stooped down to snap off a handful of beans and munched on one thoughtfully.

He nodded to himself with satisfaction, knowing that he’d met all the demands for flavour and size despite a disrupted start to the season.

“These beans were planted late, after we lost our first crop to weavels,” he said.

“We normally plant around the end of December and harvest at the end of February to early March, but after we realised we would have to resow it then became a waiting game for the harvesters to come back around for the late crop.”

Alastair has been growing beans for the past eight years and Simplot field officer Ben Foote, who readily admits that “beans are my baby”, reckons the Mitchelsons are among the best in the business. 

“I’ve joked with Alastair that if the beans needed watering he would have left his wedding to water them,” he laughed.

“That family has the history and the knowledge in spades and they are consistent with their production,” he said.

Ben looks after about three quarters of the bean growing program for Simplot, covering a huge area from Sassafras through to Westbury and Bracknell and five or six major growers.

The Mitchelson’s beans are the Stanley variety, and they’re grown specifically for slicing and freezing.

Other varieties are more suited to remaining whole or being cut – to the uninitiated a green bean is not just a bean – it has a job.

Flavour Sweet is grown to bag as a whole bean and yellow beans go into Birdseye stir fry mixes and other blends.

“I like growing beans because there’s always demand and it’s a short crop that responds well to irrigation and fertiliser,” Alastair said.

Colynn is also renowned for its production of poppies, peas, onions, plantain seed, wheat and lambs. 

TasFarmers Bean Committee chair Nick Eyles said that the volume of the bean harvest was probably marginally down on last year due to the volatility of the market.

“It’s been an exceptional growing season with the weather favourable and disease pressures not too severe,” he said.