Snake Beans
 

We grew a few Snake Beans to get more seed and it seems to have worked well, in so much as we now have enough seeds to get a decent Spring crop. We've never tried eating or growing these before, so the experience should be rewarding.

Nice Picture: My Husband would like those Snake Beans, Amen!

Those look like what I would call yard-long beans or asparagus beans, which are in the cowpea family (Vigna spp.) and not Phaseolus. I have grown four varieties and although they need a longer season than Phaseolus beans it has been worth the wait. I think they are best stir-fried, not steamed or boiled. I am thinking of growing a bush variety this year. I have only ever grown the climbing type, and they do like to climb! Last season we had yard-long beans hanging out of my neighbours' apple tree after they'd climbed over the fence!

I found the Asparagus Yardlong Beans that are Heirlooms. But, why do they let you know "not to walk under the Plant while wet"? Are they so long it will hit your head? Because the only room I have is by "Honorable Shepard Mallory Historical Muscadine Grape Vine" he received as Payment for my House in the 1900s. When Members of the USDA looked at my Muscadine Grape Vine, could not believe that the base was "as big as a Tree Trunk". I can run the Beans up those big arms of the grapevine.

It is hard to grow this bean in our climate now in BC, not hot enough.
However, they were a staple on the food table at my hometown. They are frequently used for making salads, after blanching, with peanut or sesame sauce, vinegar, and garlic.
In southern China, they are frequently made into pickled beans, through fermentation, and then used in stir-fries with sliced pork. Texture is crispier after fermentation.

If we get the Heat we had last year, I might be successful.

Long beans / yardlongs / asparagus beans need heat to grow; but given that, they mature quickly. They flower later than all of the pole beans here, but will consistently beat the pole beans to dry seed. Black-seeded types generally have a shorter DTM & are better adapted to cooler conditions; red-seeded types - although later - typically have firmer, sweet(er) pods. The firm varieties make really good, crunchy dilly beans - and you can cut them to fit the jar size. Chinese Red Noodle makes really outstanding bright red dilly beans.


There are a few bush varieties. Those have very short DTMs (50-55 days to first pods) and might succeed in short-season areas, or where it is too cool for pole varieties. Only 12" long or so, but firm pods of high quality, and will bear almost until frost if kept picked.

I grew three long bean varieties last year (zone 7a, CT coast) and although mostly later (to germinate/grow/flower) than the Phaseolus beans that were all planted on the same day, they all were heavy producers once they got going. I really enjoyed eating them.
Also, since these are all in the cowpea (Vigna) genus, I imagine that at least some of the cowpeas or "southern peas" as I see them called in catalogues (I have no southern heritage myself) could also be eaten in the "green bean" stage? This year I have a bush variety from India called "Kashi Kanshan" that I plan to grow.

Some cowpeas can be eaten in the snap stage, with varying degrees of quality. Not much different than trying to eat a dry bean variety in snap stage; maybe good, maybe not. Those bred for use as pods will be slower to develop fiber.


"Kashi Kanshan" and "Kaveri" look interesting, and hopefully at least one of them is different from the ubiquitous "Stickless Wonder". I've ordered seed for both, but won't be able to plant them until 2023 due to trials of other yardlong beans already planned for this year.