seeking great-tasting pole beans

[habitat_gardener]

I found the bean of my dreams, La Vigneronne, but it seems to be available only from Swiss sources, and it looks like I'll have only a few saved seeds. I had 3 seeds last year! I like it because it's productive, is tender and sweet right off the vine without cooking (with only 3 vines, very few made it into the house), and it's pretty -- light green with burgundy spatters.

(The other beans I like are romano-type, but those are good only cooked.)

What other beans could I try that might be at least as good as La Vigneronne?

[Zana]

I'm quite partial to the "Waterloo County Mennonite Pole Beans" aka Purple Stripes. I have a limited number if you want to try them. They produce quite vigourously - on huge vines, with pods that can reach 12" + with seeds sometimes over 1" in length. They're green pods with purple striping. And the beans are tannish-white with purple striping when dry. Good for fresh eating - chopped pods and all, shelled, dried. What can I say? I love 'em. If you're interested let me know.

Here is what Hope Seeds says about these beans...and they call them Mennonite Purple Stripes....so my temporary name for them wasn't that far off. LOL

Certified Organic
Ain't no taming the Purple Stripe! Vigorous vines challenge any pole, producing pretty shades-of-purple flowers yeilding abundant pods with tasty beans. Pods are green with deep purple streaks, and beans display the same purple streaks on a tan background (or reverse colouring). The best part: beans are tasty at any stage, surpisingly juicy even at the "in between" point between snap and dry. Seeds of Diversity Canada lists this variety as extremely rare.
Product code: 1020-CO
Price: A=$2.75 (25g) B=$8.00 (100g)

[habitat_gardener]

Zana, Thanks! That sounds like a great bean.

[mayax68]

I tried Dragon tng and loved it. Very productive, very crispy and beutiful. I also grew Gold of Bacau - it is yellow pole bean. Also great, once it started producing, it is still producing like crazy. Very tender with no side seam at all. The third one I loved was Rattlesnake look alike. It gave huge number of pods that in coloration resembled Rattlesnake, but were flatter and longer. Also completely stringless to the end(I have plenty to share, if you would like some to try).

[remy]

I've tasted the Mennonite bean and I agree it is tasty! Here's the link for Hope Seeds bean page http://www.hopeseed.com/beans.html
I've grown Romano Pole before and you can use it for green or shell. It make a lot of beans!
This year I grew Jembo Polish. It was oustanding. Vigorous from the get-go, tasty and no strings for such large pods. You can let the beans go to have shelling beans too. I'm not sure if it available commercially. I know people on the SSE list have it.
Remy

[icelord]

Hey Maya, I have alot of rattlesnakes and you are more than welcome to them! Oh and you also Remy!!

Dean

[tomatoaddict]

I had the best bean I've ever eaten in my life this year. North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cutshort. I know the name is long but...I didn't name it.
The most buttery, tender bean! I grew another greasy type but this one was superior. Now I know why people go crazy trying to get ahold of greasy beans. I will be listing it with SSE this year but if you aren't a member, pm me.

[Ruth_10]

Originally Posted by tomatoaddict

I had the best bean I've ever eaten in my life this year. North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cutshort. I know the name is long but...I didn't name it.
The most buttery, tender bean! I grew another greasy type but this one was superior. Now I know why people go crazy trying to get ahold of greasy beans. I will be listing it with SSE this year but if you aren't a member, pm me.

Did you eat these as shelly beans or in the pod? Well-cooked or just tender?

[tomatoaddict]

Hi Ruth.... I cooked them like snap beans in the pods. I always cook mine for a few hours. The tenderness was just the bean itself as I always cook my beans a long time and not all are this tender.

[mayax68]

HI Dean, thanks for your offer. I also grew the real Rattlesnake and actually preffered the look alikes. Someone here mentioned a Canadian bean variety that is green and has purple stripes. I looked it up and I think my Rattlesnake lookalike is that variety. It originally came from Canada. One of my relatives brought these seeds with him after vacationing in Canada. I do not want to make the claim that I know their name for a fact and therefore I just call them look alikes for Rattlesnake. They are much longer and much more flatter though. They also have buttery taste and if you can believe it they are still producing in CT. Like I said, it was a teffific year for pole beans. So if you would like to try them, you are welcome to them

[Zana]

Hi Mayax68,

If they are indeed the Mennonite Purple Stripes (aka Waterloo County Mennonite Pole Bean) they seem to produce in high heat, but will kick out pods until the snow flies! I've had years where I was harvesting until the end of November, here in Kitchener-Waterloo. Hardy as hell. I've had pods grow as long as 14" - 15"(35cm-37.5cm) with seeds over an inch long. And vines that just keep on going. And that was with planting them in containers! I had them in 2 or 3 containers that were about 24" (60cm) high and about 30" (76cm)diametre.

[akgardengirl]

How well do you think the Mennonite Purple Stripes would do in a cool short season environment? I am definitely growing some type of pole bean in my greenhouse next season.
Sue

[ShowmeDseeds]

I've grown a short pole bean called 'Ga-Ga-Hut' for several years.

Seeds are available from Heritage Harvest Seeds, which has about 50 varieties of heirloom beans. Their description of Ga-Ga-Hut follows:

>Ga Ga Hut Pinto - Originally grown by the Seneca Indians, this is a very early and productive pinto bean. The tall vines are disease free and grow to 6-7 feet high. Can also be grown on tall varieties of corn. Excellent variety! (95 days) Pole. RARE.

http://www.heritageharvestseed.com/pages/b3.html

Heritage Harvest is in Manitoba--so the 95 day maturity is for that climate. Here in southern Missouri, they mature to dry in 70-75 days.

This is a very unusual and excellent pole bean. Its fruiting habit is more like that of a bush bean. All of the beans mature in about a two-week time frame, and then the plants dry up.

The snap beans are excellent. When small, they are very sweet when raw. Even when larger they still make fine cooked beans--we stir fry them with soy sauce and garlic. And they are very early--about 48 days here in Missouri, about as early as any bush bean for me.

They're also very adaptable. I'm still getting beans this week, with recent high temperatures in the 50's F and lows in the 30's. But they have produced as well when the temps here have been in the upper 90's.

I have seed, and Heritage Harvest seeds ships to at least the U.S. and Canada.

Stuart

[mayax68]

Here is a picture of my Rattle Snake look alike. The beans are green as soon as you take them out of the pod. When dried they are a warm tan color with purple specs. I also included a picture of real rattlesnakes dried - they are a different shade, more grey then tan, but also have purple specs.

[Zana]

Originally Posted by akgardengirl

How well do you think the Mennonite Purple Stripes would do in a cool short season environment? I am definitely growing some type of pole bean in my greenhouse next season.
Sue

Sorry for the late reply. I found they produced quickly and kept on producing even as the temps dropped. When I had them growing in huge quantity the containers that they were growing on were sitting on a concrete patio. They survived a number of light frosts before temps well below freezing finally killed them off. But temps even down into the mid 30's F didn't seem to kill them off completely. So you may do well with them Sue.