Hi Lobo, haven't grown it but sure would love that recipe :).

Annette

Hi Annette,

Just had a taste and they are quite good. See how they look. Here's how:

Cook 1 cup of large dry beans. SHB need 36 hours of soaking, drain, cook in fresh water for 10 minutes & discard water. This just about eliminates the gassies. Then these large beans took about 18 minutes in the pressure cooker. The formula is 1 part beans, 6 parts water. Drain. When the cooked beans are still quite hot, add a good glug of white wine vinegar, same of olive oil, crush in a large clove of garlic and add finely chopped red jalapeno to taste. Throw in a few mustard seeds for pretty. I used one of those airtight plastic containers so I could keep turning it over as it marinated at room temperature through the day. This made almost 4 cups. Delish.

Ooops, forgot to mention salt. I don't use it. Of course, salt to taste and freshly ground pepper would be nice too.

A number of SSE members have offered this bean over the years. It appears to be a runner bean. There are some interesting comments:

"Vines 8' or more, flowers scarlet or scarlet/white bicolor, 5 different seed types, planted these in early July to grow as a fall crop, had no problems with blossom drop and harvested a good crop of seed before our Oct. 18 first frost date."

"Scarlet flowers, loved by hummingbirds, beautiful dried seed, maroon/black, tan/brown/pure-white, mottled, striped, speckled, more info next year, received seed only this year, from NC mountain family, over 100 years ("horse" could once have been horticulture)."

"Runner bean with multi-colored seeds and flowers, seeds are shades of purple, brown and white, flowers are red, white and bi-color."

There is only one entry for 2013 and he has it listed as a common bean. This would not be the first time that a runner has been listed that way in the Yearbook by mistake: "very large pods with up to 4 seeds each, seeds shaped like lima beans, maroon and white in color, very productive." - Dick

Thanks, Dick. My Italian friend brought the seed from her region in northern Italy where it's an established variety. They call it "Papa" (The Pope). A reference to the large size, I think. The family grows it here as their staple bean in huge quantities.

I bought mine from Heritage Harvest Seed, haven't had a chance to grow them yet. These are some of the colors that came in my two pkg. The description from HHS is...

"A beautiful heirloom runner bean that was grown in the same family for over 100 years! Huge beans have to be seen to be believed and come in a gorgeous mix of colors including pink mottled black, lavender mottled brown and pure white. The pods are also huge and can be eaten as a snap when very young. This bean is truly one of the most ornamental vegetables you can grow. The vigorous vines are covered in a mix of white and red flowers all summer long and also attracts hummingbirds. Simply breathtaking! (110 days for dried beans)Pole." Annette

LG I love your recipe!

I took cooked Bond's Orcas Lima (it is a runner bean, not a Lima) and added a glug of olive oil, two glugs of Bragg's Cider Vinegar, some garlic, cayenne, Real Salt and freshly ground pepper.

The result is my favorite way so far to use dry runner beans. - Dick

Thanks, Dick. Just made it up. The fresh garlic really makes it, especially when it's your own home grown.

These are still in the fridge and tasting great.