Beans on the bushes
This time of year there are beans on the bushes, so all’s right with the world. The Baker Creek seed catalog offers a dozen varieties of bush beans from five continents that are yellow, black, green, purple, red, speckled and spotted. The catalog from Seed Savers Exchange lists more than 20 varieties, some with very distinctive colors and markings, but their bean collection includes more than 4000 varieties.
This discussion will focus on beans that grow on little bushes, not vines, because this morning I picked a bowlful of pods from three short rows of bean bushes. The yellow ones are a variety called Buerre de Rocquencourt, reportedly a favorite of William Woys Weaver, renowned food historian who oversees the Roughwood Seed Collection of more than 5000 heirloom vegetables.
Ralph Weaver, William’s grandfather, began the collection during the 1930s in a visionary response to the scarcity of food resources in the entire country. Varieties families had depended on for generations were disappearing, and soon enough megafarms sprouted like bad-smelling fungi to fill in the food shortage.
Cue conscientious gardeners who save seeds. We pass them on because it’s not hard to save seeds if a gardener pays attention and sees it as participating in the future. We as our legacy pass along language, music, other stuff, and seeds.
The Seed Savers Exchange sprouted in 1985 when the grandfather of Diane Ott Wheatley gave her and Kent Wheatley the seeds of two plants which had originated in Bavaria – a German Pink tomato and Grandpa Ott’s morning glory, a beautiful blue flower which every spring climbs my south-facing garden fence, yet one more reason I can connect with my Bavarian fellow-gardeners. Hi, people somewhere else! We’re a team and we don’t wear matching shirts since gardening and humanity transcend t-shirts because we mean well and the common good matters, not the shirt.
As a reminder, this discussion is about bush beans, second only to tomatoes in our backyard gardens. They grow to no more than two feet high and you can plant them about a foot apart, so they work well in small garden spaces. They can abide being crowded against each other, but supports are okay. Bush bean varieties often produce a burst of beans for two or three weeks and then fizzle. That’s your opportunity to freeze or can some for later. I prefer freezing.
The bush varieties of yore would be a bush bearing beans but would also send out a runner indicating a hint of vining in their heritage. Native Americans trained their runners up a corn stalk or a sunflower. Hardly any heirlooms send out runners anymore, so if you get one, it means the ancestors are calling on you.
Opinion on how easily varieties of beans cross-pollinate ranges from don’t worry about it to keep them 20 feet apart. One source suggested from here to West Helena between varieties, but I exaggerate. I use these two guides: 1) I plant seeds from heirloom varieties or seeds produced on site by heirloom varieties, so it’s okay if they cross. How do you think we got so many varieties? There are thousands of varieties not including the ones already lost. Varieties acclimated to your spot on earth seems like a good thing even if they’re new. 2) I keep seeds from the early batch and then I keep a few from the second batch. Timing cancels cross-pollination.
To freeze some of my newfound bounty, I heated water. I rested a moment, then I cut the beans into 1.33-inch (3.38 cm) sections. I gently steamed the bean parts for as long as it took to listen to “Scarlet Begonias.” Then I put them in a bag for freezing. Me and Mr. Birdseye.
Gardeners with limited space can plant at least two small plantings of differently colored bush beans every year. Give beans away for Christmas. Hohoho!