From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
     we finally had enough to pick yesterday to cook   
   up and try out.   
      
     first of all these are a bush bean, upright habit,   
   beans are fairly far off the ground (higher than most   
   other bush beans i grow), bright purple flowers, red   
   stems and darker leaves, dark purple beans (easy to   
   see to pick), they flower heavily and bear pretty well   
   based upon last year's first grow of the seeds.  and   
   early is also a good feature to make sure they can   
   finish up the dry seeds before it gets into the fall   
   cooler and rainy weather here.   
      
     last year i sampled a few when fresh to see if they   
   were good as a fresh/snap bean and they were very   
   tender, sweet and mild.  so the plan for this year was   
   to grow a lot of them to see if they were as good as   
   those few beans indicated.   
      
     these were originally marked as a dry bean, but now   
   we're very happy eating them fresh too.   
      
     when i can hand one to Mom and she'll eat it fresh   
   and say "Yummy!" we probably have a keeper.   
      
     when i cooked them up yesterday i nuked them for   
   8 minutes and they were perfect.  a regular batch of   
   green and wax beans may go from 13-15 minutes.   
      
     the downside to these beans is if you have Japanese   
   Beetles around they can be a magnet crop for attracting   
   them.  i just pick the bugs off a few times a week in   
   the morning.   
      
     aside from the JB attractant trait the rest of the   
   traits of this bean are ones i am glad to have in my   
   mix of beans that i grow so i will continue to grow   
   these each season and plan on having fun watching some   
   new crosses appear.   
      
     i have not yet had enough dry seeds to cook them up   
   as a dry bean, but perhaps this fall there will be   
   enough for that.  they did bear very well last year for   
   just the few plants i had growing.   
      
     the seeds are also attractive.   
      
      
     songbird   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)