Bert Deane's Baking Bean

Bush. Dry bean. White, kidney-shaped seeds. Delicately skinned. Mild flavor, light, fluffy texture. Short cooking time. 4-5 seeds per pod. Pods 5-6" long when fully expanded. Plants 1-1.5' tall. White flowers. Average productivity. Mid-season maturing. 80 days to dry beans. Donated to SSE in 1981 by bean collector John Withee of Lynnfield, Massachusetts and the Wanigan Associates. Withee received the variety in 1977 from Stephen Deane of Wayne, Maine. It was originally developed by Stephen's uncle, Phillips Herbert ("Bert") Deane of Leeds, ME, by crossing three different beans: a soldier bean, a white kidney bean, and a yellow eye bean. It's unclear exactly when Bert made these crosses, but he stabilized the new variety over a period of years and then grew it until his death in 1953 at the age of 87. After uncle Bert's passing, Stephen found two, five-gallon milk cans of seed. Unfortunately, he experienced many challenges in his own attempts to grow the beans such as flood, deer, cows, woodchucks, well-intentioned neighbors who picked them too early, etc. Stephen decided to name the variety after his uncle and shared seeds with John Withee to help preserve his family heirloom variety. SSE Accession # 101203