I want down to N.C. this summer on vacation and went to visit my 91 year old aunt. It has been 12 years since I was down there so I figured better go. just like the last time she made corn bread, green beans and sliced orange tomatoe's for dinner when we got there. I have been growing our own food for about 10 years now and never came across a better tasting green bean. She said that they have been saving the seed from her grandmother and they called them grease back bean. It is a large running type of bean. Has anyone ever heard or know anything about them. she said I could have 15 of the seeds from last year and to make sure I only plant them alone so they don't get ruined by the bad ones out there. She also gave me the "times in the mind" to plant them on so they will grow good.

Thanks

-- phillip (raines@rainesridgefarm.com), September 18, 2001

Answers

My mother had a friend that grew up in the hills of Kentucky and had moved to NY as a young woman. She used to keep string beans on a string in her kitchen that she dried and replanted every year. She called them greasy beans and said that her mother had given her the seed. Unfortunately she is now in a nursing home with alzheimers and no one seems to know what happen to the beans. If your grandmother gave you some seed you are very lucky. Take good care of them and keep them going.

-- toni (dontoni@iinc.com), September 19, 2001.

I don't have the beans but I do have some heirloom tomatoes that everyone raves about. Heirlom is the way to go for the outstanding taste.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), September 19, 2001.