WoodsMt. Crazy Beans

[mamawh]

Hi I am mawma ( Sherry Hill)  I am the one George was talking about on the beans, I have been around & in gardens all my life. Down home we didn't have a garden, we had a truck patch. For 2 families, about an acre of potates, & everything els that went with them. We grew tomatoes to sell at one time. We would go down & get bare root plants, 300 to 400 at a time & set them out. in all several thousand all told. At that time they had to be hand watered & hand sprayed for bugs. we would pick them in the evening & get up & sort them in the morning before taking them to the store or where ever we could sell them. Have also went out & harvested polk for several days in order to take a pick up load down to the Dallas Farmers Market to sell. Would drive that night to be there to get a spot first thing in the morning. Grew up around my grandparents with their gardens, fields, & orchard. When small, my job was to wash jars because I could get my hand in a mason jar. Then as I got older, Grandma would let me peel apples, peaches & pears, Peeling had to be real thin. If you peeled them to thick after grandma warned you about it. You went back to washing jars, till you could peel like she wanted. She had a wood cookstove that set outside that she caned on plus cooked on so as not to heat up the house. They had electricy, got it when I was 3 or 4. But no fans or ac. She or one of us drew water from the well. for everything. I am so glad that the beans are beening used & saved. They have a taste to them that beats all others hands down.  As I told George, have not gotten to have a garden for about 6 yrs now on account of helping take care first my Dad then my Mom, going thru a bout with Fibromylagia, & taking care of my husband. I am his caregiver now. Have him on Hospice. So don't know if I will get to have a garden next year.  Keep your seeds pure & safe. They may wind up being what keeps you from going hungry in the long run.

[bngbld]

ya macmex told me about that he gave me some seed too i was just wondering how do you cook it

[john]

Hi Mamawh. I am sorry, it sounds like you are going through a rough time right now. I hope you can grow a garden again soon. It is one of life's simple pleasures to be able to grow and put up your own food.

[mamawh]

Hi all, this mawma. Just thought I would let all know how things are going. Lost my Dad in Dec. 2009, then got hit hard with Fibromyliga the end of Jan. 2010, helped my sister take care of our Mom till we lost her in 2013. As you know was caregiver for my husband & had him on hospice. He lost his battle in March of this year. He no longer has to hurt or struggle to breathe even being on oxygen 24/7. With so much to try & catch up on didn't have a garden this year. Will see how it goes next year. My parents & Grandma would be so happy to know that the beans have been spread so far & that they are liked as much as we like them. The reason we called them crazy beans, is that we planted them, got so many beans off them, then it turned dry, at the time we weren't set up to water, so just let them set. They lost all their leaves, then when it started raining that fall, we looked out & the crazy things were blooming, then put on beans till the freeze got them. As long as they have water they will put on beans, you will find blooms, tiny beans & larger beans all at the same time on the bushes. They are crazy because they don't know that they are suppose to behave like other beans. One of the traits of heirloom beans.  Enjoy!!

[aftermidnight]

Hi Mamawh,

Remember me , so sorry to hear the sad news about your hubby, but it must be some comfort to know he is no longer struggling and in pain, my sincere condolences. I had a rough time of it myself in 2013 just about bit the bullet, it took a long time to get back up on my feet but I did, have to say it took some of the skip out of my step tho... I could write a book about that experience LOL. I guess it just wasn't my time to go.

On a happier note your 'Woods Mountain Crazy Beans' are alive and doing well in Canada, I didn't grow them this year and I wish I had, the variety I grew were a complete disappointment, although that could have been to the unbelievable hot, dry summer we had. They are back on my grow list for next year and I've given seed to several people and they have been a big hit with them. I feel like a bit of an interloper here, being from the other side of the border but I wanted to make a comment on George's 'Barksdale' beans and then I did a bit of a snoop around the rest of the forum and ended up here .

Annette

[macmex]

We need to come back to this thread, as this is such a wonderful bean. Here are some pictures. When I get a chance I'll add more data on days to maturity, etc.
Here are some pictures. Woods Mountain Crazy Bean gets a little over a foot tall. Some plants will through a runner. But it needs no support. The plant strikes me like a pole bean which was "squashed down" into a bush. It has a very dense structure.

I grow them in a wide row.


This is the "bean set" on just one plant. Production tends to be huge. Better than that, they just keep spurting out more beans. Late in the season a planting may appear nearly dead, but if one looks, they may well pick another bucket of pods!



This is a great bean for canning. It has strings, but it is a tender podded bean, meaning, when strung, the pods are tender for longer than the typical stringless snap bean.

[macmex]

Here's a link to another thread dealing with this same bean. Interesting how we lose track of things!


Woods Mountain Crazy Bean

[philagardener]

I grew them two years or so ago from seed you shared, macmex - they were fabulously productive and delicious! They are back on my grow list for this year - wouldn't be surprised if we aren't in for another long, hot, dry summer.

[philagardener]

Enjoyed fresh picked Woods Mountain Crazy beans again for dinner this evening - Oct 15th near Philadelphia. May be my last of the season.
We've already had a few radiational cooling frosts but these beans are just crazy! They are a regular in my garden, year in and out.

[macmex]

I'm glad. We had them with our lunch today, though this has been a really strange year. Even Woods Mountain Crazy Bean has been pretty low on production here.