North Carolina Greasy Long Cutshort Bean

[Galina]

Quite a mouthful of a name, but these are fabulous beans and very pretty to look at because they are very shiny, as they don't have hairs on the pods. They are quite late, however I planted these very late and have already harvested beans for seed. These lovelies are just for eating and judging by the remaining flowers, weather permitting, we might get quite a few more too. They usually start in September just when many beans have a lull. I have tried several of the Greasy beans and this one is still the easiest to grow here.

PS: Sorry, I got the name wrong: North Carolina Greasy Speckled Long Cutshort Bean! I forgot about the 'speckles'.

[clumsy]

They do look shiny. I've never heard of them before.

[Galina]

The greasy beans hail from the USA, in particular the Appalachian Mountains, Kentucky, the Carolinas. It is said that 'greasy, ie shiny' is a mutation that happened only there in isolated valleys. These beans were practically unknown in most parts of the USA 20 years ago. They were and still are being collected by Bill Best of the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Centre in Berea, Kentucky. http://www.heirlooms.org/
Of course others helped collect and rescue these beans, but afaik only SMAC grows and sells seeds. Their catalogue has great photos.
I have seen shiny beans in the Georgian bean collection too, so the hairless pods have happened outside the USA as well, but beans from the Republic of Georgia (not Georgia in the USA) are far less well documented.
Because this (and the other) greasy beans have been grown in isolation in a climate very different from ours, they are not all compatible with the UK climate, However this particular variety has never been too late for me. In fact, a bean that produces when the others slow down or, if you like, one for picking after coming back from the summer holidays, is very welcome. Another feature of these beans is that the beans inside the pods develop early and you can clearly see the bumps from the outside, but the pods remain lovely and tender right throughout. They are eaten as green beans, but the beans inside add a lot of texture.

[clumsy]

Love the story. I've looked through the site tempted to buy some.

[Galina]

Seeds are drying - happy to send you some.

[clumsy]

Thank you for the offer. I will take it up. They do look great. I could do you a trade. I don't have many seeds of these varieties. I plot that they grew on I didn't take care of this year got overcrowded with weeds. But got few to share and grow next year. The small ones are canadian wild goose beans not sure of the purple 5 seeds.

[Galina]

Thank you Clumsy, But I have lots of beans and limited space to grow them. However if you get a good number of Giant Achocha seeds, I'd love some please.

[clumsy]

Giant Achocha seeds definitely will share the seeds with you and anybody else, depending on how many I get.

[Galina]

Thank you Clumsy, I haven't quite given up on mine yet, but with every passing day I am getting less hopeful.