Bean crop in Lincolnshire could mean beans on toast will soon be truly British

Beans on toast is a British staple, but did you know the beans aren't actually from the UK?

The haricot beans that fill the tins in your cupboards are all grown in other countries and imported from places like the US, Canada, Ethiopia and China.

That's because the weather in the UK makes it hard for them to grow here.

However, some scientists at the University of Warwick have developed a new haricot bean seed they think will be able to grow here.

The seeds sown in Lincolnshire mark the latest phase of the research by the University of Warwick

They're the result of a 12-year-long project, and can be sown in early May and harvested before mid-September, matching the UK's warmer months.

There's a crop currently growing in Lincolnshire that will hopefully be able to be harvested in August.

A smaller scale trial in 2022 failed due to the summer heatwave, but everyone has high hopes for this one.

"It's the first commercial scale planting of a variety of haricot beans that could end up in a can on everybody's supper table," said Andrew Ward, the farmer growing the beans.

Some health food brands have attempted to market British-grown fava beans as "baked beans", but they weren't massively popular as they taste different to haricots.