Purple Podded Pole Beans

I always like to grow things that are a little different.  If you look in the picture below you'll see some vines running up a panel of concrete reinforcement wire that I have staked up.  The vines are the purple podded pole beans I planted a while back.  They were discovered in the Ozark Mountains in the 1930's and have been grown by gardeners since then.

Pole Beans vining

As I was checking out the garden today, I noticed that there was a handful of purple podded pole beans ready for harvest.

The beans are long and kind of flat.  The fact that they are purple not only makes them stand out in your garden, but it makes it really easy to find them.

Beautiful purple

The flowers are a pretty lavender-purple color that liven up your garden trellis.

I started picking and in no time had picked a little "mess" of beans.  This will be a perfect side dish for a meal for Tricia, me, and Benjamin.

Love Purple.  Live Gold.

I put them in the crisper in the fridge and will likely cook them tomorrow.  They are delicious.  They actually turn green when they are done, so they sort of have a built in timer that lets you know when supper's ready.

Can't wait to eat them!

They produce prolific quantities.  When I was picking these I saw a number of smaller beans in various stages of growth, along with many blooms.  This lets me know that we'll have a good crop and will eat a bunch of these beans.  No complaints outta me!