The 'Neckargold' bean - the golden climber that doesn't stop in summer

Yellow straw-colored husks, tender, stringless - this German climbing variety gives week after week until the first cool weather, provided it is picked young and often.

Observation

At the end of July, in the hillside vegetable gardens, a trellis lit up. Long and thin, straw yellow crossed with a water green, the pods of the 'Neckargold' bean hang in clusters along their supports. New ones grow each day. The leaves are wide, tender, and the flowers, slightly pinkish white, continue to appear at the tips of the stems. This is not a variety that gives all at once and then stops: it is a variety that gives for a long time, gently, for those who take the time to come and pick.

The Plant

'Neckargold' is a climbing variety with yellow mangetout originating from Germany, whose name refers to the Neckar Valley. It belongs to the species Phaseolus vulgaris - the common bean - and grows by winding around a support: bamboo canes, taut strings, trellises, bean netting. It easily reaches 2 to 2.50 m and, if conditions allow, produces tender, stringless pods with a slightly buttery aftertaste for two to three months.

The Gesture

• Pick young. The rule for climbing beans is in three words: the more you pick, the more you harvest. A pod left on the plant signals to it that it has completed its mission - it then slows down its flowering. Picking the pods when they are 12-15 cm long, before the seeds begin to show through the skin, maintains production.
• Pick two to three times a week. During the peak season, a climbing plant produces at this rate.
• Water at the base, without wetting the foliage. The bean fears stagnant moisture on the leaves. A thick mulch - hay, dried grass clippings, last autumn's leaves - keeps the soil cool and avoids watering too often.

A Bit of Sensory Experience

What remains, when picking 'Neckargold' on a summer evening, is the almost unreal color against the green of the foliage - that golden tip that catches the low light, just before the sun sets behind the hedge. They are picked by hand, one by one, without haste, gently freeing the pod from its peduncle. And this impression, year after year, that a well-conducted garden does not require much: a few canes, a seed planted in the spring, a bit of patience, and summer returns a hundredfold what was entrusted to it.

To Note Before Consuming

Like all green beans, the pods of 'Neckargold' are consumed cooked: the presence of phasin - a lectin - in raw beans causes digestive problems. Steaming or boiling in salted water for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the desired texture, is sufficient to destroy it: shorter for crunchiness, a bit longer for tenderness.