Traditional Gardening

Almost everyone has a family tradition.  Many of my favorite childhood memories are tied to annual special events or practices. Wearing my grandmother's handmade Mother's Day corsages, sharing my mother's New Year's Day breakfasts with friends and family, enjoying a last-day-of-summer-vacation trip to Blowing Rock and Good Friday planting were some of our family traditions.   

Planting Beans on Good Friday is a Family Tradition

Throughout the world, many gardeners celebrate Good Friday by placing seeds or plants in the ground.  In our area, potatoes are the likely choice, but since my grandmother always planted beans on that Holy day, I keep her tradition alive and plant the same seeds she inherited from her mother.  My heirloom seed beans are White Mountain Half Runners and trace back five generations to the immigrant woman, Mary Schmidt Bean, called "Polly" by her family, who brought them to the US from Germany in the early 1800s. 

Polly Schmidt Bean, US Immigrant & Seed Saver

Last year's April 3rd Good Friday planting restored my supply of pure seed, but since the 2016 traditional planting day is a week earlier, it is likely our Western NC gardens could still expect a visit from Jack Frost; therefore, I only planted a twenty-five foot row of Granny's beans.  With luck and good weather, these seeds will produce beans to enjoy eating fresh from the vines by early summer.  When the crop is mature, the most beautiful bean pods will dry to serve as seed for next spring.  

Good Friday proved to be a glorious Spring day

Along with last year's seed, I also, just for luck, added a few beans my grandmother saved from her own garden.  Granny died in 1986 and these seeds are over thirty years old, but as I dropped seven "magic" beans into rich soil, I recited the names of all the family seed savers I know.  Polly, Dovie, Mary Elizabeth, Lora, Gladys, Cindy and Kate.  While my daughter, Kate, is not yet a full-fledged seed saver, she is making plans to grow her own garden and I have no doubt she will include Granny's special beans and appreciate these inherited heirloom treasures as much as I do.

Save seeds from the largest, most beautiful, beans