Ode to "Helda"

Late August means our favourite bean is ready to be eaten. "Helda" is a romano type pole bean that has the sweetest, "beaniest" flavour of all the types we have grown.Bill has an interesting , rustic  set of poles for them to climb. (click for full size image)

They soon do a good job of completely covering all the poles from bottom to top (and beyond).

Here is the skeleton in late June.

The beans are touted as growing 6-8 Ft. tall, but I think they would go as tall as the poles would allow.

It is a joy to browse the patch and pick the lovely dangling beans.Usually there is a set of 2 or 4 ready at any given time. 

Their are several seed sources for these, but we have purchased them from Lindenberg Seed in Manitoba for the last few years.

It doesn't take a huge number to make lots for a meal or two.

Each can get to be quite a generous size while still retaining their flavour and tenderness. 

The littlest seem to get eaten raw!

It is very easy to miss them while picking, and inevitably a few get missed....these are the ones that can sometimes get a little large.

Even the "average" sized ones are 8 or 9 inches in length. It helps with the picking when they get too high to reach....they dangle down quite well.