@TNHunter - if I’m buying canned green beans, I’m gonna be looking for those flat Italian types, too. Allen’s are good. Margaret Holmes and Glory are da bomb!
@Fusion_power - do you have any experience with Black Nightfall bean? I ended up with about 2 ounces of dry beans from some plant in the garden, last year that looks like BN…a black bean seed with the same ‘frosting’ that Turkey Craw has. I don’t recall any black frosty seeds when I planted the Turkey Craw beans last spring, and had not grown any black-seeded beans in previous years, so don’t know where the black seedcoat color came from.
Turkey Craw is notorious for in-garden bee made crosses. The plant would have been pollinated by a black seeded variety which results in black seed with frosting. Logan Giant and Rose are examples of black frosted beans. I’ve grown both but did not find anything exceptional to justify keeping the seed. To clarify, the cross was made in a previous year, you grew the resulting F1 seed and got the black frosted beans.
Pole. 65 days. This heirloom was brought from Tennessee by the Cherokee people as they were marched to Oklahoma by the federal government in 1839 over the infamous “Trail of Tears” that left so many dead and suffering. This prolific variety grows on vigorous vines. It is good as a snap or dry bean and has shiny black skin.
Pole Bean
65 Days
Full Sun
Sprouts in 5-8 Days
Seed Depth: 1/2" to 1"
Ideal Temperature: 70-80 Degrees F
Plant Spacing: 6-10"
Frost Hardy: No
Phaseolus vulgaris
Growing Tips: Vigorous, long vines need support. Soak seeds overnight and direct seed after last frost. Harvest frequently to keep plants productive."
I have “greasy bean” and scarlet runner. I put the quotes because they are old saved seed beans, from when I originally planted two or three drying beans. they are ok as green beans, you have to string them. if you let them get big then do leather britches, the bean inside tastes really good and breaks out of the shell easily.
I grow scarlet runner for the flowers as well as the bean.
I planted adzuki beans this year, they are short and small. and some franchi “long green bean” but they are just now flowering so I’m not sure how they’ll be.
I finished canning the beans today with a total of 14 quarts put up from the bucket of beans I harvested 2 days ago. The first canner full had 6 quarts of Helda Romano beans and 1 quart of Grandma Roberts Purple. Today I canned 7 quarts of Grandma Roberts Purple Pole beans which are from my Grandma who passed in 1999. These beans are typical of many Appalachian purple beans in being robust germinators even in cold soil. They also mature quickly and produce a heavy crop that matures in a relatively short interval, in other words, ideal for home canning. They are stringless when young and tender but develop moderate strings as the beans enlarge in the pods. If strings are properly pulled, these beans are tender, tasty, and relatively easy to can. On a scale of 1 to 10 for overall performance as a green snap bean, I rate these 8.5.
These beans definitely taste best when caramelized slightly by boiling off the water and letting them sizzle for a minute or two in the bottom of the pan. With a bit of chipped ham, these are darn good beans. I usually add salt and pepper and sometimes a dusting of hot pepper to my beans on the plate ready to eat.
Resonanteye, I’ve grown a lot of greasy beans over the years. The flavor is phenomenal, but production is extremely low.
First @resonanteye introduces me to greasy beans in the “Crazy grafts” thread, and now @Fusion_power introduces me to leather britches beans. What’s next, someone landing on the moon?
Much much worse, now I get to blow your mind. Landing on the moon is easy peasy. I also grow Nuña beans which are popped like popcorn. If you have never had Nuña beans as a snack, you are missing one of life’s simple pleasures.
I have two lines of Nuña beans in the garden. Both were sourced from Jim Myers at OSU nearly 20 years ago. I originally had a dozen lines but the others were not very well adapted to my climate. P10 and P4 Nuña lines are well enough adapted that I can grow them.
@Fusion_power, are you sure that those are Nuña beans, instead of Nunyah beans? The former would mean I might actually get to try them on a trip to Alabama, along with that citrumelo-like fruit from the tree in Birmingham you write about!
i know of some garbanzos that pop. Carol Deppe srote about them in her book “Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties”. I tgink we tried growing them some years back. The outcome wasn’t memorable for whatever reason.
For green beans, we favor french haricot vert and wax beans. Theyre so good fresh- much more tender than anything you can buy. Though bush types, they are productive and not space hogs. A couple of sowings each about 4 ft square keeps us well stocked through the growing season. We dont bother with parboiling and freezing or pressure canning beans, really, but dilly beans- i.e. pickled beans- are a staple and favorite of nearly anyone who tries them.
As far as the most versatile bean, Id have to throw my hat in for runner beans. Theyre good in all stages. Though theyre not much appreciated for their culinary attributes here in the US, they are the preferred green bean “across the pond”, where they are perennial. I imagine they start producing pretty quickly in locales where they can overwinter, especially since they form a starchy tuber. They make excellent dry beans, IME. Theyre large and creamy, with a nice flavor. I wonder why people in warm climates here don’t appreciate them more.
The best dry bean Ive eaten is ‘calypso’ aka ‘yin yang’. Its so thin skinned and creamy, you’d swear itd been cooked with a bunch of sour cream. Ive never seen them for sale, though grocery stores DO carry Maine grown dry beans in several varieties nearly as good - ‘jacob’s cattle’ is usually a go-to. Theyre only a couple of bucks a bag, which like @TNHunter was saying, makes it tough proposition. We DO grow loads of potatoes though. Once you get used to roasted fingerlings, its hard to go back. Yukon gold is without a doubt a great potato, and widely available. But then, potatoes are supposed to be one of the most pesticide laden vegetables there is. Growing ‘em is hard work, but pound for pound they give you more sustenance than almost anything.
Maybe it is a colloquialism peculiar to this geographic region of Georgia, but some people like to use the word in this manner: “Nunyah business.” Those beans being prepared in that fashion sounds like something that I’ve got to try, especially if @Fusion_power is offering to put his expertise on display at some point.
I grow Scarlet Runner and Blue Lake pole beans; and we eat them as green beans, fresh or frozen. So, they’re available all year. The great thing about pole beans is that they produce continuously from early summer until almost first frost.
No one here has mentioned my favorite type of green beans: oriental long beans (first tried out in Chinese restaurants). They have a great taste, as well as nice texture, and freeze nicely, too. Until this year I’ve only grown one variety, Oriental Wonder, which is good and has lovely blue flowers, but does not have a long season. The plants also develop yellow coloration, which looks like bean mosaic; but I’m not sure if that’s what it is or some natural color variation. This year I found another variety called Yard Long Noodle King, and I’m growing them alongside the Orient Wonder. So far they are staying green, while the other ones are already yellowing. It will be interesting to compare them for the whole season.
I’ve been wondering how long my Blue Lake pole bean would produce. It would be great if they would continue all summer. Do you do anything special to keep them producing? Thanks
I think that disease can be an issue with Blue Lake beans. I used to grow them in a three-year rotation, and they would die out long before the Scarlet Runner beans did. Since I changed to a four-year rotation, they last almost as long as Scarlet Runners. It also helps to pick the pods while they are still fairly small, with only small seeds inside. As Fusion_power said, it might help to fertilize, something that I do occasionally.
Not disease, nematodes. Most bean varieties are somewhat susceptible to nematodes. I am growing Alabama #1 for seed this year because it has proven nematode tolerance.
My garden spot is small but I will start rotating each year as much as I can. I got lucky and watched the video of Old Alabama Farmer and he said to pick every other day which seems to work well. Apparently if the plants grow mature beans the vines reduce production. As a bonus he demonstrated what the ideal bean maturity was for snapping. Now that my Heavy Hitter okra is fruiting well the picking every two days works well for them also.
The former would mean I might actually get to try them on a trip to Alabama, along with that citrumelo-like fruit from the tree in Birmingham you write about!
