Mostoller Wild Goose

Pole. Dry bean. Seeds bicolored with a well-defined light brown spot and red-brown mottling on the ventral side. Dorsal side is white. Pods green, straight; pubescent. Strong suture string. Non-edible pods. Fully expanded pods 4-5.5" long; 0.6-0.7" wide. Mature pods yellow. Dry pods shattering. 2-5 seeds per pod. Non-pigmented vines. White flowers with light pink on the standard. Low productivity when grown in 2014 at Heritage Farm. Shelling (horticultural) beans are creamy and soft inside with a potato-like flavor. Dry beans have a sweet smoky like flavor. Skin is tough. Early maturing when grown in 2014 at Heritage Farm. In the autumn of 1865, Sarah (Mowry) Mostoller discovered a few beans in the crop of a wild goose she had just plucked and cleaned. The bird was bagged on the mill race of the family's sawmill in Somerset County, PA by her sons, John and David, recently home from serving in the Civil War. Sarah placed the beans on the window sill to dry, saved them, and planted them the following spring. They proved to be a shelling bean which the family found tasty and also used in baked beans or soup. In 1977, Sarah's great-grandson, Ralph Mostoller of Johnstown, PA, shared seeds with bean collector John Withee of Lynnfield, Massachusetts who later donated seeds to SSE in 1981. SSE Accession # 101178