Big Brown

Pole shelling/dry. Strongly climbing plants with green leaves and white flowers. Immature pods are green and mostly straight with a slight curve at the base. Fully expanded pods measure 5.8-7.9" long and 0.6-0.7" wide. Mature pods are light yellow with a light pink blush. 6-8 seeds per pod. Seeds are 50% hard seeded. Large olive-grey seeds, have squared ends. Moderately productive when grown under high disease pressure at Heritage Farm in 2018. Dry pods in late August in 2018 planting. This variety came to SSE in 2016 from Phil Appleby of Washington, but the variety was originally donated to SSE in 1981 by John Withee of the Wanigan Associates in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Problematic inventory led SSE to reacquire the variety from Withee's source, Phil Appleby. Phil received this variety many years ago from his parents Walter Appleby (1893-1982) and Maude Appleby (1898-1974). It is unknown where Walter and Maude first acquired the variety but they had grown it for longer than Phil could remember on their farm in Northern Ohio. Phil’s first memory of this bean was around 1935, when at about age 10 one of his chores was to weed between the corn rows where the beans were growing. Phil said that he saved this seed because he grew up in the Great Depression so it was ingrained in him to grow and save. It is also a very old bean and tastes good. Phil prefers to eat this variety as a shell or dry bean cooked with a ham hock. Today at age 91, Phil continues to grow, save, share, and enjoy the ‘Big Brown’ bean with his family. SSE Accession # 133073