Beans, Jacob's Cattle, Dry-Bush

(100 days) - Phaseolus vulgaris 

A Slow Food Ark of taste variety, “This is bean is the oldest name given to this variety, also known as the Trout or Appaloosa bean, that originates from the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. The Passamaquoddy indigenous people of Maine were said to have given some as a gift to Joseph Clark, the first Caucasian child born in Lubec, Maine in the 1600s. Even through the late 1900s, this bean had a very local distribution limited to the northeastern United States, and particularly Maine, and Prince Edward Island, Canada.  This is a plump kidney bean with white and reddish-brown specks, said to have earned its name from its resemblance to the spotted Hereford cattle. The beans can be harvested young and eaten when the pods are still green and the markings on the beans are only pale pink in color. They can also be harvested and dried at full maturity, after their pods have become golden yellow and too fibrous to eat. As the beans mature and dry out, the markings darken to their maroon color.”

Packet: one ounce