We grew Good Mother Stallard green beans this year for the first time. A subscriber sent them to us and two things made me want to grow them.
First the amazing color of the bean. The pink maroon swirly beans are so pretty!
Secondly, I said if there was ever a year we should try a bean with mother in the name it was this year since both our daughters became mothers for the first time.
The Good Mother Stallard beans are a pole bean so you need something for them to climb.
We only planted about an eight foot span of the beans and I wish we had planted more.
They held up under our dry conditions much better than the rattlesnake beans. They weren’t near as prolific as the rattlesnake beans have been in the past, but they are still producing and I wonder if we had received ample rain if they wouldn’t have done even better.
The beans have a real meaty flavor to them. The broth made from cooking the beans is really rich. The taste is good and the pods have a different texture somehow.
I noticed several seed companies that are selling them say the bean itself is velvety in texture. I think that’s an apt description.
I found this information on the Seed Savers Exchange website:
One of the 1,186 beans given to Seed Savers Exchange in 1981 by bean collector John Withee of Massachusetts. Named for Carrie Belle Stallard of Wise County, Virginia. This variety dates to at least the 1930s. Maroon beans splashed with white, 5-6 seeds per pod. Wonderful rich meaty flavor, great for soups. Very productive.
- 85-95 days
- Conventional
- Pole bean
- Dry bean
- Maroon and white beans
- Meaty flavor
- Very productive
This variety works for:
- Baking
- Soups
These beans liked to be cooked long and slow at low heat to keep their texture and flavor at it’s peak.
They work well as a side for roasted sausage or mushrooms, in a soup with ham and kale, or even in chili.
According to that description the bean is mostly used for dried beans and I’m sure they are good that way, but this summer we have eaten the entire bean in the traditional Appalachian way of cooking them to death and really enjoyed them. When cooked the beans turn from that pretty swirl to a tan color.
I love the history of the bean and how it is traced back to Carrie Belle Stallard and I’m sure her family and friends grew it too.
If you’ve ever tried the bean please share your thoughts about it.
Tipper
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Miss Tipper another informative blog and very interesting too. The Mother Stallard’s are a beautiful and colorful bean. I think if I find them anyplace I will try planting them next year. The late life interest in gardening has struck me hard this year. Can’t figure out why though. Most beans are so good tasting to me and I enjoy them very much. Could y’all please pray for my daughter, she had a massive stroke and is very sick. I would be grateful for prayer for her. This is hard to handle as Our son, her brother, had a near fatal heart attack last September and has recovered well due to prayer, wonderful health care workers and great doctors. I thank God for all His blessings. Have a great day today everyone and God bless y’all.
I have never heard of these beans, they look to me like it would be better to shell the beans either when still green or after they dry. Some have mention October beans, my Aunt that lived in Chattanooga loved them and would always plant some in her garden each year.
Pretty beans but by the time I got through cooking them you wouldn’t recognize them.
I’ve never heard of them. After reading the description and see the picture, I just might have to plant some next year. Thank you for sharing all the information and your experience with the Good Mother Stallard beans.
I grew them for the first time last year. They were slow to produce but finally came on. I cooked them as dried beans and loved the rich flavor and meaty texture. I planted a packet again this year and they haven’t produced well at all but I guess it’s the weather. I did like them well enough to try again though.
Such pretty beans! Mom used to plant an extremely wide bean that had a melt in your mouth taste. I always thought the October beans had the most colorful shells. I grew and shelled those for years. I froze them after they dried but remained slightly soft, as that is what Mom did. Freezing them after shelled but still soft made the most amazing thick bean soup, and I would cook them on special occasions through the winter. I am just fascinated by all the bean varieties and fear there are some that may have fallen by the wayside. My grandfather was well known for a green thumb, and he saved bean seeds year to year. I was fortunate enough to have been given some of these seeds handed down through the family, and I planted them for years. One called a “sweetheart.” Unfortunately, an ambitious aide I hired to stay with Mom while I worked decided to give Mom’s room a good cleaning. She literally tossed the beans that to her seemed out of place on Mom’s desk where I had stashed them. Such a variety, and I have since forgotten the various names of the beans. I also wonder if sometimes old farmers like my grandad may have just renamed beans if they did not know the original name. Later cousin gave me old beans, some of which had the name of whoever grew them. I was always interested in a puzzle, but this one had no experts to help me. My fascination for beans probably makes me a bit corny, but so glad I was taught that sometimes it is the simple things that may give us the most pleasure.
Yes, the bean in the pod does look like the cranberry bean which has a pod that is tan with magenta swirls. The bean is also colored that way and is a shelled bean and grows in a bushy mound. They make a delicious dish when slowly simmered. You end up with a tan bean in a creamy tan sauce that you will want to cook again for sure. You should be able to use this bean as you would a pinto bean. This bean brings back childhood memories for me.
The photo of your beans looks pretty and I am sure they are delicious. I love all kinds of beans, except maybe green Lima beans. I still like them but they aren’t my favorite. I really enjoy your Monday live videos. I always watch them later on, but they are so interesting and fun. Have a great day.
After reading about them here, I immediately began searching online and found most sources were sold out. People must agree with you about their goodness. But I finally found a seed company that has them in stock so I bought myself a birthday gift of seeds for next year’s garden. I bought the beans, cucumbers, cippolina onions, lavender anise which is also called anise hyssop, lettuce, peppers, yellow summer squash and a variety of zucchini that I heard about on the YouTube channel Homesteading with the Zimmermans. It’s called Tromboncino and can be eaten young or later as a winter squash. No tomato seeds, though. I’m determined to buy my plants again from the Mennonite nursery like I did in 2023 because they did so much better than the ones I grew from seed this year.
Never heard of them. And I find it intriguing that not only are there so many kinds of beans but that some are good one way and others another. Shapes up that no one person or family could ever do much more than sample a few kinds. I agree, Mother Stallard’s are a very pretty bean.
Tipper–A wonderful black friend of my family who helped out a lot in looking after our parents in their later years. the late Beulah Sudderth, had another description for the “cooking them to death” way of preparing beans you mention. She called it cooking “holy beans” and explained, “You cook the hell out of them.”
Jim, I heard the Cajun cook that used to have a TV show say something similar about Good scrambled eggs- you beat the hell out of them.
Happy these beans did well for you. I think it appropriate a “mother” bean be named for someone from Wise County.
Thanks for the recommendation, Tipper. While they are out of stock now, I’ve asked to be notified when they become available. They sound delicious and I look forward to planting them next Spring.
I will share this DANDY TRICK for green beans. Drop 2 beef bouillon cubes in your green beans when you open them from a can and you’ll go next level with compliments! This year I even put a bouillon cube in each pint of green beans I canned. Delicious you ask? I learned this hack from my deceased mother in law.I raised purple green beans that lay low to ground and nice green beans that are pole beans. When those purple ones cook up or are pressure cooked, they’re green as can be in the jars. I figure the purple has to be filled with nutrition due to its rich color! I can them TOGETHER IN HARMONY and no one is the wiser. They’re delish! I think your swirled beans are very beautiful and I bet they are tasty too! We’ve got Stallards that live here and that’s all I can say nice… have a blessed day. My sunflowers don’t know where to point and at sunset they pointed EAST….. have a good one and look for Jesus to come anytime. The signs in the sky are here… some nights there is NO moon and the sun is all over the sky blazing HOT BURNING…. Something is amiss and we are having FALL in WV and the nights are downright cold like late September into October… bumble bees are all over the place with few other bees…
Sadie, I intend for this to be humorous, if you were raised in the south, there are only two acceptable things to add to green beans or dried beans. They are fatback or as some call it side meat and COUNTRY ham or ham bone. You can also add arsh taters. Just like sweet cornbread, anything else pegs you as being from the Nawth. I notice you said WV, that might be borderline. Please accept this as me teasing.
I never heard of “Mother Stallard Beans.” They look good and I’m happy they worked out well for you. I haven’t grown any green beans in the past few years, I used to grow white half runners. They are my favorite of which my Daddy used to plant mostly.
I’ve not heard of these but they look pretty and sound good to eat. We’re pretty much die hard Rattlesnake bean fans and we have grown a ton of them this year. I canned 20 quarts and the rest I’m allowing to dry out for dried beans this winter. We love them as a soup bean! I think I have about 5 lbs drying downstairs and will have about 3 lbs more before the beans quit for the season.
Are these a flat bean? They kinda look like that in the picture
Denise-they aren’t a flat bean 🙂 So glad your rattlesnakes did good!
I’ll be ordering this one. Sounds delicious.
Have a blessed day.
I have not heard of them but they sound good!
They look like “cranberry” beans.
I’ve never heard of them but they are so pretty! Glad they did well for y’all.