Cornell Pole Bean Collection – 3 lb or 5 lb Box
Three New Pole Bean Varieties · A Norwich Meadows Farm–Cornell University Collaboration · Hand Harvested
These are more than unusual beans. Zubdeh, Yansoon, and Amira are newly developed pole-bean varieties shaped by Norwich Meadows Farm’s growers, Cornell plant breeders, and years of selection in the field and kitchen.
Each was chosen for its distinctive flavor, beauty, productivity, and ability to thrive on organic farms. Harvested by hand, the beans can be enjoyed as tender snap beans when young or allowed to mature into exceptionally flavorful fresh shelling beans.
The Three Varieties
Zubdeh (“Butter”)
Zubdeh produces golden-brown beans with a rich, buttery quality. When cooked, they create a luscious, naturally viscous pot liquor that adds body and flavor to soups, stews, and simple bowls of beans. The plants produce both yellow and green pods, making each harvest a little different.
Yansoon (“Anise”)
Yansoon is a golden-brown bean with a gentle, comforting flavor. When cooked, it develops a mild, squash-like sweetness and a delicately anise-scented pot liquor that lingers on the palate. Its striking yellow pods make it as beautiful as it is flavorful.
Amira (“Princess”)
Amira is a regal bean with a sweet, floral flavor. The mature beans are tan with marbled brown markings, while the pods glow with deep purple-indigo color. Both elegant and productive, Amira brings extraordinary beauty and flavor to the table.
How to Use Them
Young pods can be cooked like other fresh snap beans: sautéed, steamed, roasted, braised, or quickly blanched and served with olive oil, butter, herbs, garlic, or lemon.
At the fresh-shelling stage, remove the beans from their pods and simmer them gently until creamy and tender. Fresh shelling beans cook much more quickly than dried beans and generally do not require soaking.
- Serve simply with olive oil, herbs, and sea salt
- Add to soups, stews, and braises
- Toss with tomatoes, peppers, or seasonal greens
- Use in warm bean salads and grain bowls
- Purée into spreads or creamy bean dishes
- Save the flavorful cooking liquid for soups and sauces
The Story Behind the Beans
One of the first projects Zaid Kurdieh and Cornell plant breeder Michael Mazourek began together focused on developing a new generation of pole beans.
High tunnels are commonly planted with tomatoes and cucumbers, but growing the same crops repeatedly can allow diseases and fertilizer salts to build up in the soil. Beans offer farmers a valuable alternative. As legumes, they can obtain nitrogen through their relationship with beneficial soil bacteria and help diversify high-tunnel crop rotations—an especially important advantage for organic farms.
Most modern bean breeding has focused on bush beans, which mature within a relatively short window and can be harvested mechanically. Pole beans grow upward, take advantage of a tunnel’s vertical space, and continue producing pods as the vines develop. Their height also allows farmworkers to harvest while standing upright rather than repeatedly bending close to the ground.
Because these beans are picked by hand, the pods avoid much of the scratching and bruising associated with mechanical harvesting. Farmers can also select them at the delectable fresh-shelling stage that machines cannot easily accommodate.
Selected in the Field—and in the Kitchen
With help from John Hart, Zaid and Michael assembled a collection of Zaid’s favorite beans and began crossing them. Several seasons of selection followed in Norwich Meadows Farm’s high tunnels and Cornell’s fields and greenhouses.
The team selected plants that could resist diseases found on the farm, produce plentiful clusters of easy-to-pick pods, and deliver outstanding flavor as both snap beans and fresh shelling beans. The beans were tested not only in the field, but also in Haifa’s kitchen.
The project was nurtured by the knowledge and care of Norwich Meadows Farm’s expert Egyptian growers. Each variety was given a distinctive name that reflects its character and identifies it as part of the Norwich Meadows Farm family.
Zubdeh, Yansoon, and Amira are among a new generation of pole beans created to serve farmers, farmworkers, cooks, and eaters—beans bred not only to grow well, but to be truly delicious.
Storage
Keep refrigerated and use as soon as possible for the best texture and flavor. Fresh shelling beans may be removed from their pods and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for several days. They can also be briefly blanched and frozen.
These are fresh beans for cooking and eating. We do not sell seeds or plants.
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