897tgigvib
Garden Master
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Last year, I grew 44 varieties of Beans!
This year it'll be about that many kinds, but the number that I have is now 77 kinds.
A friend traded me for all the kinds their neighbors at Tierra Verde have that I did not yet have.
Bean collector here.
For the best eating green Beans, I noticed nobody mentioned any of the real Appalachian Beans. They come with names like SALLEE FAMILY WHITE SEEDED GREASY. Those turned out to be at least 4 distinct kinds. One was actually a White Seeded Creaseback Greasy Semi Cutshort! Another turned out to be a White Seeded White Podded Cutshort. One of them made pods that ripened by dying. Don't think I'd grow that one again, but I did save the seeds from it because I don't want to contribute to its extinction. One particular plant was just like the White Seeded White Podded Cutshort, except its pods were filled with Yellow seeds, all of them on that plant. None of the seeds in the envelope were yellow. Either that's part of the variety's nature, or a mutation, or the bumblebees and carpenter bees were at it.
Nobody mentioned McCaslan. I grew a Sallee family version of that variety they'd been selecting for decades. Huge long meaty pods. Old time Appalachians pick their beans full sized and string them. It's a family thing around the bowls of beans. I also grew a White Seeded Kentucky Wonder similarly selected since around WWII or before when the government gave away bean seeds. These are basically Kentucky Wonders with white seeds that cook up like Limas. They are amazing prolific of huge long meaty pods in clusters of up to 10! I also grew a half Runner from Appalachia that was like a miniature 4 foot version of the McCaslans.
There are also the Missouri Wonders that make fat meaty pods and soft quick cooking pintos. I grew 2 kinds of Italian Wax Pole Beans too. Both make almost identical pods and plants, but one has pale brown seeds, the other has white seeds. These are a huge soft and tender bean pod, flat, few seeds per length, almost do not need cooking. Extremely beautiful in the garden to have all the yellow pods hanging there.
Then there are the Purple Podded Dows. Holy cow! They win all the growing contests! In fact, don't plant them among other beans else they will dominate them. Yep, they sprout in cooler soil first, make a vine first, and nobody catches up to them.
Now those are all fresh pole beans.
Haven't yet mentioned the fresh bush beans...