Beans, green beans

In my mind, beans fall into two categories.  Green beans and shelling beans.  To further the confusion, most shelling types can be used green if they are picked young.  Also, there are bush varieties and pole varieties within those categories.

My favorite ones to grow are green beans, pole variety because I really prefer to pick them while standing up.

I’ve tried growing bush types before and didn’t like bending over to harvest them.  I also didn’t like that they stopped producing after a certain point.  With pole types, they are more like the energizer bunny…they keep going, and going, and going until they get killed from frost.

I’ve tried growing some shelling types in the past too (shelling types are like black or pinto beans, for example. There are many different types of dry shelling types, some that have beautiful colors and flavored. Or so I’ve heard.) The ones I tried to grow were plants that were bush varieties and I felt like the amount of dry beans I harvested from the amount of space that was planted was on the slim side.  Maybe if they were pole types the harvest would have felt worth the effort.  I’ll leave that experiment for another year, though.

The variety I have grown and enjoyed up to this point for green beans is called “blue lake pole.” They have hardly any strings in them even when they get a bit large.  I did some research and found two other pole beans that are completely stringless at all stages.  They are called “Fortex” and “Emerite.”

I ordered some seeds of the “Emerite” variety that I am planning to plant next year.  I really hope they are actually stringless but still taste great and can well.

Cause you know, that would totally make my day!