No sign of mold to any other odd look.... I am going to put them in a Cranberry Almond Chocolate Biscotti... so I will give it a go. Thanks everyone! Alexa Cranberry Almond Chocolate Biscotti Makes about 36 1 1/2 cups flour 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup cocoa powder 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/8 teaspoon salt 3 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted 1 cup dried cranberries 1 cup sliced almonds 8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat liner. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs and melted butter into the dry ingredients. Stir in the cranberries and almonds. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Flour your hands so that the dough won't stick to them, and divide the dough into 3 equal 8x2x3/4-inch logs. Place one log on the baking sheet and bake 24 minutes or until firm and dry to touch. Remove from oven. Reduce oven to 325°F. Transfer baked log to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut the log diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place slices, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake about 10 minutes or until dry and dark. Transfer to racks; cool. Repeat with the other two logs. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. Dip each biscotti into the chocolate, at an angle, coating the end. Return to a cooled baking sheet and chill about 20 minutes or until chocolate is set.

Thanks Gary. I got the Speckled Cranberry from SSE, and the UWVC came in a trade from someone at T'ville. I suppose I'll have to do as you suggested and trial them both. The main subject of my interest, however, is an unidentified cranberry bean (or october bean of some sort) that I spotted at the farmers market a couple years ago. The farmer called it a Wooster bean and said his family's been growing it for generations. (I'm in western NC and that's pretty typical here.) Anyhow, he gave me some seed for it and I grew it last summer. It was the best bean I've ever grown. Gorgeous big round pink and white beans, grew like gangbusters, easy to shell, super productive, delicious, and it hardly took any time to shell a big pot full of them. It was the perfect bean. So I was thinking I'd trial THAT bean against whichever of the other two was a better bean. I've never grown any cranberry beans before. Maybe they're all good. But it sounds like I'll have to compare all 3. I'll be glad to send you some UWVC in the fall. I'll have lots. I grew 200 feet of the Wooster bean last year. I think I really like Cranberry beans.

Wow. I had not seen this list before and had no idea that so many other peoples interests in AV's, paralleled my own. I think I have close to half of those on the list! I have been a big fan of the "buckeye" series of AV's and I have several. Like all of us here, our tastes change from time to time. Mine have evolved to where I have a distinct preference for variegation. I have not added a plant to my shelves for a long time that did not hold some promise for variegation. As a result, just going off the pics, I think I would gravitate toward the Buckeye since it appears to have a more prolific variegation pattern.

I also chop/halve mine by hand, and it goes pretty quickly. This is one of my faves for cranberry bread. Cook's Illustrated Cranberry Nut Bread 1/3 cup fresh orange juice 1 T. grated orange zest 2/3 cup buttermilk 6 T. butter, melted 1 large egg, beaten lightly 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup granulated sugar 1 tsp. table salt 1 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. baking soda 1 1/2 cups cranberries (about 6 ounces), chopped coarse 1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped coarse 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. 2. Grease bottom of 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Stir together orange juice, zest, buttermilk, butter, and egg in small bowl. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in large bowl. Stir liquid ingredients into dry with rubber spatula until just moistened. Gently stir in cranberries and pecans. Do not overmix. 3. Scrape batter into loaf pan and spread with rubber spatula into corners of pan. Bake 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees; continue to bake until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 45 minutes longer. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool at least 1 hour before serving.