Dr. Nathan Moore's Stick Bean

Pole bean. Green stems and leaves. White flowers. Pods green when flat, yellow at shelling stage, leathery-podded when dry. Pods are pear shaped in cross section, slightly curved, with small, downward curving beaks. Pronounced constriction between seeds. Mature pods 4-5.5" long, 0.5" wide. 4-7 seeds per pod. Seeds brown-gray with an orange-tan eye ring. Mid-season maturity when grown in 2013 at Heritage Farm. Sweet flavor, crisp and tender as a snap bean. Tastes good as snap bean even when fully expanded, though it develops a strong suture string. Snap beans harvest very easily off the vine--barely have to pull on them and they fall off. As a shelling bean, moderately easy to shell; meaty, good flavor, slightly sweet. Dry beans have an excellent sweet, smoky flavor and smooth, dense texture. Thin skin. This family heirloom bean was donated to SSE by Bruce Van Order (NY VA B) who requested it in 2005 from Julie Maruskin (KY MA J) via the Exchange. Julie Maruskin received the beans circa 2004 from Dr. Nathan Moore, a local physician who began growing them in the early 1980s. Seeds were passed down from Dr. Moore's parents, Nathan and Frances Moore, and before that from Frances' parents, Ben and Audrey Banks of Adair County, Kentucky. When Frances was a child in the 1920s, she and her sister disliked the chore of picking snap beans. Dr. Moore said it's called a "stick bean" because it needs to climb on sticks, poles, or some other support. The family used wild cane which was cut for poles and assembled in a teepee for the beans to climb up. Julie Maruskin says it's also a good shelling bean. SSE Accession # 105565