Long Cut Old Timey Greasy Bean
May 18, 2022 8:31:35 GMT -6
hedgeapple, triffid, and 1 more like this
Post by macmex on May 18, 2022 8:31:35 GMT -6
I've grown this bean since at least 2007 but never really focused in it. This year I hope to document it better.
I suspect I obtained seed for Long Cut Old Timey Greasy in 2007, though it's possible I got it in 2006. My first record of growing it was in 2007 and the note is cryptic. I said something about planting it on corn at church. I can't recall ever growing corn at churcn (any church). There's no other note for 2007. That's it.
I purchased this seed from from a vendor in North Carolina via eBay. The Carolinas are perhaps the epicenter of greasy beans. They also seem to be a place where the term "Old Timey" is popular. I got my Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin seed from Roger Winn in Little Mountain, South Carolina. Long Cut Old Timey Greasy Bean came from somewhere in the vicinity of Ashville, NC. A couple years ago I found the same vendor selling the same bean on eBay. I left him a comment to encourage him for his "service" in making this bean available to the public.
This is a greasy bean, a style of bean pod first selected by the Cherokee and perhaps others like the Choctaw, in the Southern Appalachian part of North America. Greasy beans are named the way they are because they lack the microscopic hairs on their pods, which make other beans have a mat texture. Greasy beans, under the right light, are shiny. I believe some are shinier than others, that there is a spectrum of "greasy." Some of the long Cut Old Timey Greasy Beans in my stock are really shiny. I've grown others which are hard to discern as being "greasies" without holding them under the light of an incandescent light. I strongly suspect that Cherokee Striped Cornhill is just off the hairy side of greasy. It's not a greasy, but it has fewer microscopic hairs than most regular type snap beans.
Why does anyone prefer greasy beans to regular podded varieties? Well, for at least some, the absence of microscopic hairs makes the bean far more appealing. Beside the fact that they lack the microscopic hairs, every greasy bean I've met has also been a tender podded string bean, meaning that they concentrate fiber into the sutures of the pods, leaving the pods themselves super tender, and that, for a long long time. Some tender podded beans can be strung and cooked only a day or two before the seed would grow in the garden (if planted), yet both the seed and pods are tender at this time.
I've noticed that a greasy bean will often make a certain squeaky crunch in the mouth when eaten, which is absent in most non greasy varieties.
I'm sure there are greasy bush varieties but they are much more rare than the pole varieties.
Also, there are a lot of greasy beans with white seed. Long Cut Old Timey Greasy has that classic small white seed style found in many other greasy varieties. In fact, this is not a pure variety in that it has some variation in pod length and style. It had more variation when I first obtained the seed, which is a good reason to try to grow larger plantings of such varieties and save seed from more plants. Every variation in this selection has been excellent.
I shared seed of this bean with a couple of members of the Oklahoma Gardening Forum (Now in Houz.com) back when it was really active. Several folk there commented that it was a good early pole bean, producing pods more rapidly than others. I have never managed to track the days to maturity, always neglecting to get down the pertinent data, but I've always felt that it's early and dependable. It's also a bean that handles our Oklahoma heat pretty well.
This one is dependable. It's productive, and... it is not widely grown.
I like color in my bean seeds, which unfortunately, has made me a little prejudiced against this bean. The truth is, however, that it has always done very well for me and is a wonderful bean for our our table. The vines are pretty vigorous. They require support. They do well on corn. They produce a lot of seed. I noted in 2013 that this was one of the few bean varieties to survive a massive grasshopper plague. Perhaps they were not as attractive to the grasshoppers. I don't know for sure.
I've grown this bean at least in 2007, 2008, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2019. I planted about 10' of this bean on May 16 (two days ago) and hope to renew my seed while producing enough to enjoy at the table. I also hope to keep better notes on this bean.
I suspect I obtained seed for Long Cut Old Timey Greasy in 2007, though it's possible I got it in 2006. My first record of growing it was in 2007 and the note is cryptic. I said something about planting it on corn at church. I can't recall ever growing corn at churcn (any church). There's no other note for 2007. That's it.
I purchased this seed from from a vendor in North Carolina via eBay. The Carolinas are perhaps the epicenter of greasy beans. They also seem to be a place where the term "Old Timey" is popular. I got my Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin seed from Roger Winn in Little Mountain, South Carolina. Long Cut Old Timey Greasy Bean came from somewhere in the vicinity of Ashville, NC. A couple years ago I found the same vendor selling the same bean on eBay. I left him a comment to encourage him for his "service" in making this bean available to the public.
This is a greasy bean, a style of bean pod first selected by the Cherokee and perhaps others like the Choctaw, in the Southern Appalachian part of North America. Greasy beans are named the way they are because they lack the microscopic hairs on their pods, which make other beans have a mat texture. Greasy beans, under the right light, are shiny. I believe some are shinier than others, that there is a spectrum of "greasy." Some of the long Cut Old Timey Greasy Beans in my stock are really shiny. I've grown others which are hard to discern as being "greasies" without holding them under the light of an incandescent light. I strongly suspect that Cherokee Striped Cornhill is just off the hairy side of greasy. It's not a greasy, but it has fewer microscopic hairs than most regular type snap beans.
Why does anyone prefer greasy beans to regular podded varieties? Well, for at least some, the absence of microscopic hairs makes the bean far more appealing. Beside the fact that they lack the microscopic hairs, every greasy bean I've met has also been a tender podded string bean, meaning that they concentrate fiber into the sutures of the pods, leaving the pods themselves super tender, and that, for a long long time. Some tender podded beans can be strung and cooked only a day or two before the seed would grow in the garden (if planted), yet both the seed and pods are tender at this time.
I've noticed that a greasy bean will often make a certain squeaky crunch in the mouth when eaten, which is absent in most non greasy varieties.
I'm sure there are greasy bush varieties but they are much more rare than the pole varieties.
Also, there are a lot of greasy beans with white seed. Long Cut Old Timey Greasy has that classic small white seed style found in many other greasy varieties. In fact, this is not a pure variety in that it has some variation in pod length and style. It had more variation when I first obtained the seed, which is a good reason to try to grow larger plantings of such varieties and save seed from more plants. Every variation in this selection has been excellent.
I shared seed of this bean with a couple of members of the Oklahoma Gardening Forum (Now in Houz.com) back when it was really active. Several folk there commented that it was a good early pole bean, producing pods more rapidly than others. I have never managed to track the days to maturity, always neglecting to get down the pertinent data, but I've always felt that it's early and dependable. It's also a bean that handles our Oklahoma heat pretty well.
This one is dependable. It's productive, and... it is not widely grown.
I like color in my bean seeds, which unfortunately, has made me a little prejudiced against this bean. The truth is, however, that it has always done very well for me and is a wonderful bean for our our table. The vines are pretty vigorous. They require support. They do well on corn. They produce a lot of seed. I noted in 2013 that this was one of the few bean varieties to survive a massive grasshopper plague. Perhaps they were not as attractive to the grasshoppers. I don't know for sure.
I've grown this bean at least in 2007, 2008, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2019. I planted about 10' of this bean on May 16 (two days ago) and hope to renew my seed while producing enough to enjoy at the table. I also hope to keep better notes on this bean.
