Cowpeas and Asparagus Beans are the same thing, ie, Vigna. Asparagus beans are just special varieties selected in Asia for long, long pods. Both of these can be used either as a green bean or a dried bean. Used green, it's the same harvest rule as any green bean -- pick them young and tender before the pods get too tough. To use them dry, just let them go all the way and dry on te plant, then pick and shell. Of course, you can even use them in the intermediate stage as a green shelled bean, as one would use lima beans. Odds are that your cowpeas are bush form, although there are pole varieties as well (but, these hardly EVER show up on seed racks). The asparagus beans are definitely a pole bean. Flavor -- the mature, dried cowpeas taste pretty much like any dried bean, and can be used in soup, baked beans, salads, etc. If you want to know what they taste like before you grow them, just pick up a can or frozen package at the grocery store and sample. The immature pods taste similar to a regular (Phaseolus vulgaris) green bean, but are somewhat more delicate in flavor, and some of them have an almost mushroom-like taste as well. They are excellent in stir-fried dishes, or just cooked like any bean. I personally love them, and grow them every year. Culture -- same as any bean, but they are heat lovers, so be sure to wait to plant until around Memorial Day. I find it better to start the asparagus beans inside about 3 weeks earlier and transplant. Dennis SE Michigan

I have just sent you an e-mail

It appears the Southern Seed Legacy Project has them offered. I am not sure what it takes to become part of the project though. Good Luck and let us know how they turn out. Dean

Well, when I use tripods I just cut 8' saplings or pieces of bamboo. I use a breaker bar (long, heavy and pointed) to make holes to sink those poles about a foot. I place the poles in a triangle, about 3 1/2 feet apart and tie the tops together. Then I plant 2 to 3 seeds at the base of each pole. Generally, I find it easiest to plant the seeds under the leaning pole, so that they naturally grab it when they begin to climb. The main mistake I've made over the years, is to make my poles or tripods so high that I can't reach the top for picking. I place my tripods about 3 to 3 1/2' apart. Since moving to Oklahoma I've discovered cattle panels. I believe I get more beans to the foot with them. What I do is to drive three T posts in a straight line and wire a 16' cattle panel to them, about a foot up off the ground. Then I plant Georgia Long seed about 6-8" apart, under or just to the side of the cattle panel. I also have some shorter pieces of cattle panel, and sometimes use them. I'm a seed saver. My wife is mainly a vegetable user/lover. She absolutely loves to walk out into the garden and pick to her heart's content. We have divided our responsibilities so that I do nearly all the digging and planting. She does most of the preserving, though sometimes we work together on canning. Anyway, having said that, I'll comment that there are few things more discouraging to either of us than for her to happily "go a picking" and then have me not so happily inform her that she just decimated a rare seed crop. She wants to pick without fear of that. So, we've developed a system. If something is planted on a cattle panel, it's fare game for picking. If it's on a tripod, it's for seed, so do not pick. If it's on a single pole, ask before picking. This has worked well for us. Incidentally, I love this idea of division of labor. She does what she does best. I do what I do best. It's WONDERFUL to get home from work, sometimes, and have my wife say, "George, I wish you'd get out there and work in the garden!" Taste and texture: well, Georgia Long, as all long beans, is not as tender, raw, as most Phaseolus vulgaris beans. I do eat them raw at times, but not when I can get a regular bean pod. Their taste isn't as sweet either. But cooked, we like them just about the same as a regular string bean. They are good! They have the advantage that one can run out to the garden and literally pick a handful of pods; and that will be enough for a nice mess of beans for dinner (because each pod is so long). They also seem more heat tolerant than a Phaseolus vulgaris bean. I would never grow these if I was primarily looking for dry peas, though. They are a bit shy in the area of seed production. A 24" pod will usually only have 8 seeds in it. Also, when saving seed, I've learned that it's important to let the vines set their seed during the hot part of the summer. If I get greedy and pick all the pods during that time of the year, thinking that I can let them set seed later, I usually discover that once the nights turn cool, those pods are almost empty of seeds. So get your seed first, or better yet, make a separate planting for seed. I consider Zeedman to be the most experienced one I know in growing out different varieties of long bean. I'm pretty sure that Farmerdilla has grown a number of varieties. So, if anyone needs to know about comparisons perhaps they can chime in. George