Dirksen's German

Pole/dry. Cooked beans have good flavor and are large and meaty. Weakly climbing plants. Purple flowers. Short curved pods measure 4-4.5" long and 0.5" in diameter. Pods develop a dark pink dash pattern as they mature. Pods contain an average of 3 seeds. Seeds are large, oval with a cranberry pattern. W.M. Hawley of Washington shared this variety with SSE in 1991. Hawley recalled that back in 1921 when their family was living in Nevada, Iowa, a Mrs. Dirksen shared this bean variety with Hawley's mother. It had been given to Mrs. Dirksen's own mother by an old German lady who simply called them German Beans. Even after Hawley's family moved to Portland, Oregon in 1926, they continued to grow the beans through the years. W.M. Hawley began growing them after marrying and grew them for more than 50 years. Hawley uses them both as a snap and dry bean. SSE Accession # 103604