Tung's Beans

Also known as Mr. Tung's Beans. In spite of the fact that this is my second varietal report for beans this year, we don't generally grow too many new beans these days. However, I received some of these beans in a trade 2 years ago and I've been quite impressed with them so far.

I grew them last  year, but I forgot they were for eating fresh, and didn't try any! They grew well and left plenty of seed to plant this year, and this time we've remembered to eat them.

They are a remarkably tender bean. Flavour is on a par with my favourite pole green bean, Blue Lake, but the difference in texture is noticeable. These are almost meltingly soft where Blue Lake is crisp. They are stringless and tender at a larger size than many beans, but of course you can overdo it and let them get too big. Like most beans, they grow very fast and should be picked daily. They are flatter than Blue Lake, but not a broad flat bean like the Roma types. They don't grow as straight and even as Blue Lake, either, but tend to be a bit more wild looking. They are productive, but not quite as productive as Blue Lake.

Overall, we agree we will likely be growing these again, and our "regulars" are now a tough set to break into. We have frozen some, but it will be a while before we find out how well they do. If they freeze well, we will be that much more likely to persist with them. Heritage Harvest says they do freeze well.

One caveat: as regular readers know, we have been struggling with bean anthracnose in the garden for a few years now. We have made some progress in cutting it down, but so far it is reappearing late each summer. I have noted a few specks of black rot on a few of the Tung's beans already, so I would have to say that these have limited to little resistance to bean anthracnose. All sorts of viruses and fungi are rampaging through the garden this year. There is a little of some sort of virus that seems to be affecting all the beans fairly equally but only random plants here and there. There is one virused plant in amongst the Tung's beans, so it is doing about the same as all the others as far as resistance goes. Naturally, none of those virused plants will be kept for seed.

Tung's Bean has a well-documented history. It was grown in the garden of James Kerr of Kootenay Lake, BC, during the early years of the 20th century by the gardener, a Mr. Tung who had come over from China bringing these beans with him, according to the family record. Mr. Tung eventually returned to China, leaving the beans behind. They were grown by the Kerr family for a number of years, then almost lost during World War II when the gardening was interrupted for 7 years. They were revived from 4 beans found in the shed with the garden equipment, and after that shared around to keep the same thing from happening again. You can read the detailed version of this story at The Populuxe Seed Bank.

Posted in: Ontario Food