Barksdale Wax Pole Bean is the softest snap I know. Pods are yellow, 1" wide and about 8" long. The biggest disadvantage of this bean is that it does not like warm, dry nights. It has very low production when the weather is hot. Then, when nights cool, it will kick into high gear... if it survived to that point. Here in Oklahoma that's the problem. If often doesn't make it. But this summer we've had some cooler temps and much more ran than normal My Barksdale are looking GREAT!

George
Tahlequah, OK

My Barksdales are a little slow this year, planted late and then the heat but are coming on strong now. My favorite wax bean to date....and they do almost melt in your mouth:).

Annette

Barksdale

Too bad I didn't really research it for this year it would have been a great year for those! Thanks, I will give it a try next year I think, and am open to any other suggestions...

I have some pole beans that look exactly like those Barksdale and they melt in the mouth. They are called Golden Bacau.

They were the first of 6 varieties to produce this year and are still going strong.

Linda

I'll stretch the boundaries a bit by recommending the original bush variety Tenderpod. It has a recessive gene that makes the pods extemely tender. You have to plant about twice as many seed as needed, the variant gene results in low germination.

My favorite beans for tender eating are Tobacco Worm which is a pole variety.

I was also thinking of Tobacco Worm.

Tobacco Worm, Tenderpod, and Golden Bacau, Barksdale... maybe I will mix it up with a couple varieties... I'll see whats available from the seed company I buy from. I'm in Zone 6, usually we have fairly hot, always very humid summers. I would like to grow pole beans but after seeing how well my tiny bush plants produce I may think twice... and they just never stopped, I thought I was supposed to get one flush and that's it, but they keep putting out more than before, I'm sick of them already.

Any votes on the best producers of the bunch? If I plant more than one kind I don't have to worry about them not producing until it is cooler out... we get plenty cool in late August and September here.

Peter,

I know of no seed company which offers Barksdale. If you wish to try it, I'd recommend that you obtain seed from someone here. Also, while I like the bean, I know from having grown it in various locations and climates, that it can be difficult. I've had it flop before. Other years it out produced everything else. But I would never grow Barksdale as my main crop unless I had proven it to do well in my location for a number of years. Just a heads up!

George

Thanks, so what is the recommendation for a reliable producer of tender beans? Tenderpod has some bad reviews, and tobacco worm does not seem easy to obtain. Gold of Bacau says that it is crunchy?

Russ Crow's 'Blue Jay' is another great bush bean, available commercially in Canada and I'm sure you could get some from Russ if you can't find another source for them. I don't know about the 'melt in your mouth' but it is a sweet flavorful bean.

Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: A Bean Collectors Window

My Golden Bacau were not crunchy, but very tender. This is my first year growing them and they were the first of the 6 varieties that I grew to produce beans.

Linda

Sustainable Mountain Agriculture has seed for Tobacco Worm.
Really, you'll probably have to try a couple and decide what you like best.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Tobacco Worm Bean Seed/ Sustainable Mountain Ag

One reason that Tobacco Worm and George's Tennessee Cutshort are so tender because they have strings and all the toughness is in the strings. Both are used as full beans.

Here is a link that might be useful: Full Beans

I've grown Kinghorn Wax. A bit 'meatier' than your average modern wax bean, but still stringless. As productive as any other wax bush bean. Used to be an important commercial canning variety 50+ years ago.

Jeminez and Flamingo are melt-before-you-get-them-in-your mouth beans. "Slipskins", right George?

As apparently I have no idea what I am doing, I have learned the way to get nice tender beans is to steam them. I steamed up the last of my French Filet beans, and they were nicely tender! :)

I only grew Jeminez once. Maybe it was the "slipskin" trait. But I recall that I didn't like the bean. (Don't let that prejudice anyone against it. It was probably more a matter of my own personal preference.)

Peter, we have been throwing around some special terminology. "Tender" doesn't always refer to simply easy to chew pods. A tender podded bean, in specialized "bean circles," refers to a special genetic trait that makes it so that the bean seems to localize any toughening in strings, instead of throughout the pod. So, when the strings are pulled, the pod remains tender, much much longer than a regular bean, which does not have this trait. But a "non-tender podded bean" may be quite tender for eating if picked young. The great majority of green beans out there fit this category.

Barksdale is fairly unique, in that it is both tenderpodded and stringless. It is so tender that I find sometimes I wish it had a bit more substance to the pod.

On the other end of the spectrum for tender podded beans, I find Woods Mountain Crazy Bean to have chewier pods when allowed to develop strings and filled out seed. They are still good to eat. But they have a whole lot more substance to them than Barksdale.

George

What does slip skin mean? Also, what's a shelly?

Thanks for the explanation... if you can, can you explain what strings are? I am not sure I understand... pull out a string?

Here's an example, mine are past the full bean stage so can't show that. 'Tennessee Cutshort' has strings, you can see the strings on the bean on the left, cutting the ends off is called tip and tailing them. The one in the middle shows what they look like as shellies (fully formed but haven't started to dry down), the one on the right shows what they look like dried. This bean can be used as a snap, as a full bean (not quite at the shelly stage, the pod still has some substance....this is how I like them), shelly or dried.
Annette

I haven't run into this myself but think slip skin is when the outer skin of the pod slips off leaving a slimy looking pod.

Each pod has a seam, which runs top and bottom from the stem to the tip of the bean. In a true string bean that seam has a fiber which runs along the top and bottom seam. It is literally like a little string. if you fail to get rid of it, you will be pulling it out of your mouth when you eat that bean, as it does not chew up very well.

True string beans have almost all their fiber along the seams of the pods. It's as if the bean plant localizes all that tough fiber into the seam of the pods, leaving the rest of the pod exceptionally tender, when it begins to age, rather than becoming tough and fiberous.

So the advantage of the tender podded bean is that you can eat and enjoy it when it is much older than a normal modern variety. In parts of the South, it is traditional to let the seeds fill out before picking and cooking string beans. This results in a pot of pods and shelly beans, all mixed together.

The disadvantage of the string bean, is that you have to string it, which takes a little extra time.

Barksdale Wax is a tender podded bean, just like so many string beans. But it never has any strings either. More common snaps are stringless, but their pods develop tough fiber in them when they are maturing their seed. This is not to say that a stringless (or tough podded bean, as I would sometimes say) is a tough bean. It can be succulent when young. But it won't be tender when the seed in its pods is maturing.

George

Peter,

French Filet types are best when very slim. Older pods get tougher.

One aspect of tenderness is how long the pods are cooked. I hear some people cook beans for 30 minutes, or more. If Jeminez were cooked for that amount of time I think the pod might just about dissolve. About 3-4 minutes is all it needs. At about 5 minutes the outer skin starts to slip off. A few minutes more and the whole pod is falling apart.

Stimson Pole bean, that's the first snap which I tried and didn't like. I believe it is, what was previously described as a slip skin. If one likes this trait, then Stimson would be a great bean, as it is very tender and prolific. I found it mentioned by Fedco Seeds. I bet it's for the same reason that I didn't care for Jimenez. Yet, I recall a good many others raving about both of these beans,

George

Thanks for the explanation.. makes sense now. Now that I know how to cook tender beans, I think I will go more with what grows better, than what grows the largest and is still good.

This post was edited by Peter1142 on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 14:56

I suggest that now you know how to cook them, grow what tastes best!