Sampson Family Italian

Pole, snap bean. Very good flavor, tender, slightly astringent. Pods are green with dark purple stripes, long, flat and curved. Weak suture string. Pods 6-8" long; 0.7" wide. 6-8 seeds per pod. Seeds tan with mottled purple stripes and faint dark tan mottling. Very good flavor and texture as a dry bean too. Plants are strong climbers with large leaves. Pink flowers. Medium productivity when grown in 2016 at Heritage Farm. Mid-season maturing. Donated to SSE in 2013 by Paul Sampson of Xenia, Ohio. Paul has grown the variety since 1994 when he received it from his father, Eugene Sampson. Paul's mother, Joan Sampson, received the bean seeds as a gift from a patient while she was working as a home-visit nurse in Utica, New York. This patient was of Italian heritage and told Joan that the bean variety had been passed down in her family for “generations.” SSE Accession # 132336