The Pick of the Crop
(Page 8 of 10)
Of all the new beans I grew, Ballack from Seeds Blum was
the best. It has dark seeds (a drawback for canning), but
it's as sweet and tender as any bean I've eaten, with the
exception of the Half Runner. The final bush bean of note
is Ajax Broad Stringless, one of the flat European slicing
types from William Dam. Not commonly found in this country,
it's good fresh, but even better canned.
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Shepherd's offers Serbo, a very fine new European pole
bean. The vines are literally covered with small pods that
are best eaten before they plump out. Northeaster from
Johnny's is the more usual pole type. At 55 days, it's one
of the fastest-maturing full-size poles, and its tender
eight-inch pods are stringless with a delicious, sweet
flavor.
Hastings has one of the oddest new poles in its Alabama
Pole No. 1. This cultivar's green pods have a purple cast
when ripe, and the seeds are black. The rather short, plump
pods mature fairly late, come in absolute droves and are
indeed delicious. Another strange pole bean is the Anellino
from Le Marche, in either green or yellow. The pods grow in
the shape of a hooked 0 with the bottom curving to meet the
top. The vines produce an abundant crop of these lovely
curlicues, which have a first-rate flavor.
Among the horticultural beans (we call them fall beans
around here), Allen, Sterling & Lothrop has one of the
best pole types. Their Worcester Horticultural has mammoth
pods that resemble the old fallor cranberry-type bean. The
heavy pods, splashed with red, are excellent when cooked.
When dried, they make a good pinto soup bean.
Of the half-dozen dry, or baking, beans I grew, Vesey's
Kenearly, an improved Yellow Eye cultivar, was among the
best performers. The most unusual was Johnny's excellent
French flageolet shell bean called Flambeau. The slender
pods have eight to 10 mint-green beans that are tender and
firm and will remind you of fresh limas.
Cucumbers
Stokes' superb new Slice King is one of the finest
cucumbers I've ever grown—period. Though it has some
of the shiny gloss of the burpless variety that it is, it
looks more like a regular cuke. The attractive fruits are
eight to nine inches long, and mature in about 50 days.
Though you'll grow Slice King for its taste, it's also
enormously productive and disease-resistant.
Among pickling cukes, I especially liked Pik Master from
Seedway. The blocky, five-inch, white-spined fruits are
perfect for whole pickles. The vines are highly productive
and extremely disease-resistant. The cukes mature in about
53 days, a bit later than most picklers, but worth the
wait.
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