Market Farming

[Marlin L Burkholder <gleneco1 AT juno.com>]

This is my second year growing a bean like plant from seed given to me by
a neighbor.  It is a climbing bean with shiny leaves somewhat resembling
those of lima beans but smaller.  It produces high yields of long slender
pods in pairs about the thickness of a lead pencil and rangeing from 18
inches to 24 inches in length.  As the pods ripen, they become leathery,
then papery and the color changes from dark to pale green.

Though I have not eaten a lot of them yet,  I have had a lot of positive
feedback from large numbers of Kurdish immigrants who frequently come to
my farm seeking a variety of "pick your own" items.  They buy a lot of
them and tell me they like the flavor better than that of many of our
more familiar American snap bean types.  Apparently they are similar to a
bean with shorter pods with which they were familiar in their homeland
(northern Iraq).  I like them because they are easy to grow and appear to
have good resistence to Japanese and Mexican bean beetle infestation.

I have found a a few other seed catalogs listing something similar which
they call "yard long beans" or "asparagus beans"  The neighbors called
them "Japanese beans".  Johnneys Select Seeds has one called "Liana"
which seems to fit the description.  Apparently they have an Asian
origin.

I am interested in others' experences with this bean (if it can be called
a true bean), it's history, optimal harvest size, and how it can best be
used in food recipes.  I've heard they are good steamed and stir fried,
but I admit to getting a little tired of telling people that every wierd
thing I grow is "good in stir fries".

Marlin Burkholder
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

PS  I have enjoyed occasionally visiting other peoples farm web sites so
now I will share a recently created website which features a page about
my farm. It is at www.singersglen.net, a site about the historic village
of Singers Glen, VA (worth visiting even if you are not particularly
interested in farms).  Click the link "Businesses in Singers Glen" and
then "Glen Eco Farm" and it should pop right up.  I was told the site
would be up and running by the end of July.  I last checked in mid August
and the links weren't working yet.  Right now I have a glitch in my
operating system which is blocking my access to the Internet and I am too
busy on the farm to run it down.  I would like knowing if the site is
operational and what you might think of the Glen Eco Farm page.