Good Mother Stallard Beans

This year was our first attempt at growing pole beans, for the purpose of drying the beans for use later in the year. Last year we grew a different variety that we were able to harvest and cook while still fresh. At the end of the season, as we were cleaning out the garden, we found a few pods that we had missed. They had dried on the vine nicely, so we decided to do it on purpose next year. A little bit of research during our spring seed purchase led us to the Good Mother Stallard variety — an heirloom variety that others had said would dry well, and had a hearty flavor when cooked.

We used bamboo stakes, arranged in a semi-circle, to create a structure to support the vines. The seeds germinated quickly, but it took them some time to begin vining (we had a cool start to the summer). Once they got going in the heat of the summer, the vines were quite vigorous. In the future, we will likely build a taller structure, as I think the vines would go 10′ if we let them, and may have yielded a larger harvest that way. They made nice companion plants for some of our squash plants.

We were able to harvest about a quart of beans from about 10 vines.

When it came time to harvest, the kids were particularly excited to assist, as one of their favorite things to do in the fall is harvest seeds from our various perennials around the yard. They said breaking open the dried seed pods reminded them of harvesting seeds from our Shasta Daisies — they love using their thumbs to rub the dried flower heads and loosen the daisy seeds. We let the beans dry until close to Halloween, so they were very dry and easy to removed form the shells. We were able to harvest about a quart of beans from about 10 vines. Having nothing to compare this to, we were excited with the amount of beans the vines produced, especially considering how low-maintenance they were. We really did just plant them and let them go. A little training of the vines, and extra watering, were required early on but once they got going they were on cruise control.

There is certainly some bean soup in our future this winter, and we look forward to using our beans! It sounds like others have used this variety of beans to make bean burgers and other such dishes, so we may experiment with that, too.

//Dad Gardener