Lynnfield

A versatile shelling and dry bean. Dry beans have a mild slightly nutty flavor. Shelling (horticultural) beans are meaty, tangy and subtly smoky. Pods mature from green to light yellow with slight constriction. Pods measure 3.4-4.8" long. Shattering dry pods contain 4 seeds. Moderately climbing pole plants have white flowers. Large, white, veined seeds have maroon and tan solider eye pattern. Plants showed moderate disease symptoms. Low productivity and mid to late season maturity when grown on Heritage Farm in 2017. Donated to SSE in 1981 by bean collector John Withee of Lynnfield, Massachusetts and the Wanigan Associates. During the 1970s, John Withee selected this bean out of another variety in his collection named 'Lila Stuart' (SSE BEAN 102) which he had received from Seed Savers Exchange member Ernest Dana in New Hampshire. A versatile, climbing variety that can be used as a shelling or dry bean, John described developing 'Lynnfield' in a 1981 interview with SSE co-founder, Kent Whealy: "...I gave a variety a name - Lynnfield after my town. It was out of a pole bean that Ernest Dana sent me. When I grew it I saw a difference in some of the plants and in their earliness. So I marked those, separated them and found that the difference showed up in the seed...Prof. Meador [Professor Elwyn Meader] had told me that if it would maintain that characteristic through three plantings, three growouts, then it could be called a new variety...And that is what happened and I gave it the name Lynnfield." SSE Accession # 101128