A productive and lovely-looking smallish bean that was grown by the family of Reverend Roy Blount of Louisiana, USA, from 1880. The white colouration resembles snow on the dull red/brown background (the mountain). It’s a fitting name for this bean. The plants climb up to 1.5 m in height, but love to grow sideways as well which makes them appear compact. Small white flowers will reward you with a bumper crop of lima beans that can be eaten freshly shelled or dried. They take slightly longer to grow than other varieties but the yields will keep going until winter. This makes Snow on the Mountain totally worth the wait. Pick regularly for best yields.
If there is snow on your nearby mountaintops during the cooler months, this next selection’s harvest will help you stay warm all winter long.
‘Snow on the Mountain’ is a lima bean cultivar with a pole growth habit.
Also known as “butter beans,” limas are scientifically classified as P. lunatus, making them cousins of P. vulgaris. Limas include both bush and pole bean cultivars, and ‘Snow on the Mountain’ is one of the climbers.
This open-pollinated heirloom variety dates back as least as far as the 1860s, and produces curved and slightly twisted green pods that are harvested for shelling or drying.
The pods of ‘Snow on the Mountain’ reach four to four and a half inches long and contain three or four sweet and nutty seeds.
A close up horizontal image of a pile of ‘Snow on the Mountain’ beans set on a wooden surface.
‘Snow on the Mountain.’ Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin.
The tasty seeds of this variety are fairly small for limas, with a black eye surrounded by a snowy field of white on a dark maroon background – and they are excellent for dry storage.
Expect plants of this variety to grow to at least six feet tall, and to produce a harvest in roughly 80 days.
A rare cultivar, look for ‘Snow on the Mountain’ from heirloom seed sellers.
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