Smith Osborne Bean

(Phaseolus vulgaris); Pole bean; Dual purpose: snap or dry; Minimum 20 seeds

A Kentucky fall bean and vigorous climber, Smith Osborne is extremely productive in our Michigan garden, topping an 8-foot trellis and yielding near 4 pounds of dry beans per 6 row-feet. The fat pods are good snap beans when full and green. As the pods mature they turn a brilliant magenta, which came as somewhat a shock but pleasant surprise to me the first year growing them (it's what I get for not paying better attention to details when I ordered the variety.) Our motivation for trying Smith Osborne came from our friend Karen's assertion the dry beans are as sweet as sugar when slow-cooked.