As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
On an end times whim, this past spring I purchased a pole bean named Barnes Mountain. I have no idea what my seed stocks are left from vermin eating them, so this is the seed which I have a number of now in they did grow this year in a drought. Be wary of people saying things grow in dry soil and minimum water. Not all things are Monsanto genetic poisons.
This is a review of this pole bean.
Barnes Mountain - 70 days - This one caught me off guard for its vigor and ability to handle drought and poor soil. Lack of ideal spots to plant, it got planted in nearly straight sand had minimal water and still grew like crazy. Produces an abundance of nice, round, green podded beans that were 6 plus inches long. This is a white seeded type with a history dating back to Kentucky.
I judge a pole bean by the criteria of Kentucky Wonder or Wax Beans. These both have strings which are more work, but the flavor of them is wonderful. An Amish woman told me to grow Jade bush beans as her kids loved them. I never have liked bush beans as they squeak on my teeth and have that fuzz.
I like the strong flavor of pole beans and I like that pole beans are not all at once like bush beans in they keep producing beans and are not one picking.
So in this review that is my criteria.
It was dry in the Brier in a drought, I had to water as I grew my beans on stockade panels, at the edge of the garden in a hay field. They almost went tits up a few times in the high heat we were experiencing in this normal drought cycle.
They were late in being end of August, which pole beans tend to be. The pods were tender and absent of strings to deal with. Their scent was strong and I had high expectations. I boiled them, I think I even microwaved them, but they seemed quite bland to me. TL liked them very much and they are a very good bean, but they are not what I was expecting in a pole bean.
I have grown allot of varieties of pole beans. Some just do not do well here, like Rattlesnake and more than I care to remember the names of. So I dislike beans that do not produce allot of beans over a long season.
I was not very impressed with the first set of this bean. Not all the seeds came up, due to HAARP chem snow toxins in the soil, but they did sprout for a 16 foot row. So our first meal seemed to be our last meal as I wanted seed. This started the end of August, and as I type this, it is September 20th and the leaves are dying back as the plants are done, and I have a very good crop hanging there. The pods are full and bulging and I will get allot of seed. The problem again being, I really could not locate the pods for the leaf growth and I never really checked that close after the first pickings as I thought that was all there was. There was a good crop there though without much rain, but again, it was basically all at once so there was a deluge of beans for one picking. Perhaps they would have produced more if I had picked them, but I was trying to raise seed for next year. I will know more next year as I'm not growing for seed, but of eating. Perhaps they will produce more harvests but I have my doubts as this bean seems to be more like bush beans in nature.
So this bean is not what I personally like. I like stronger flavors. I like a longer season as our Septembers get cool without frost into October and we get allot of squash and beans in good years.
The plus side is, this bean will produce quite well for an end of season picking. It does not have strings. It is a pleasant eating bean. It cooks well.
I will probably grow this next year as my end times bean as I'm in no mood for strings to be pealed out of a pod as I have too much other stuff to do. I can frown about, to me, a bland tasting bean, but it a bland tasting bean is better than no bean at all to eat.
That is how life will devolve in remembering the good olde days and being left with the things that are getting you buy as you have something that people will sell their wives for in Jack for his bean stalk.
Nuff Said
agtG
