Rufus W. Taylor

Bush/snap. A bush bean with short runners. This variety can be grown in the ground with sprawling runners, or it can be trellised. Moderately sweet, juicy, and crisp when young. Strings develop quickly. Small, smooth pods turn light yellow with faint purple stripe-dash pattern when mature. Fully expanded pods measure 4.8-5.6" long and 0.5" wide. 6-7 seeds per pod. Medium size white oval seeds. Mid season maturity. Above average productivity when grown at Heritage Farm in 2018. Jeff McCormack, founder of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, received this variety in 1998 from Timothy Martin of Lewisville, North Carolina. Martin's grandfather was Rufus Taylor (b.1901 - d.1995), a farmer and an expert gardener who was born in Anson County, NC. The bean seed was given to Rufus by his mother, Mary Ann Taylor, when he married and established his first garden in 1918. She had grown them for an unknown number of years, but Rufus grew and saved seeds of this variety from 1918 through 1994. McCormack shared this variety with SSE in 2017. SSE Accession # 133168