Bigarrada gris i negre
(Bigarrada Gris-Negre)
(Pole) A Catalonian heirloom from Spain. This variety is highly productive as a dry bean. The name ‘Bigarrada gris i negre’ translates from Catalan into English to roughly be ‘Variegated Gray Black’.
Xènia from Associació L’ERA, an organic agricultural association in Catalonia, shares,
“We have little information about “mongeta bigarrada gris i negre”[. It] is a pole bean, “bigarrada” means that [it] has different colors (usually 2 when we talk about beans). [Bigarrada gris i negre] is from a little town in the mountains, here in Catalonia called Cava (https://www.alturgell.cat/cava) the bean has 2 colors […] Has a short circle, around 50 days for flowering. Is cultivated to eat dry, the beans boiled, not the pods, that are very thready. The pods are flat and green, and has quite good production.”
Days to Maturity:
Origin
Bigarrada gris i negre hails from the small mountain village of Cava, located within the municipality of Cava in Alt Urgell. 1 According to Consell Comarcal de l’Alt Urgell (English: ‘Regional Council of Alt Urgell’),
“El municipi de Cava aplega una sèrie de nuclis del vessant nord de la serra del Cadí que històricament havien format part del comtat de Cerdanya, junt amb la resta del Baridà.” 1
[English: “The municipality of Cava brings together a series of towns on the northern slope of the Serra del Cadí that had historically been part of the county of Cerdanya, together with the rest of Baridà.” 1]
The municipality of Cava is composed of the villages of Cava, Ansovell (Ansobell2) and Querforadat. 1