A quick post, because I’m in Chicago accepting an award for the blog from the Association for Garden Communicators. Before leaving Toronto, one of the last things I did was pick this lovely bowl of ‘Emerite’ pole beans.

Are beans worth the space they take in a tiny garden like mine? You might not think so. In bean season, they’re abundant and (relatively) cheap in farmers’ markets.

However, Mr. TG loves beans, and I love Mr. TG. So we’ve traditionally grown a few bush beans to let us grab a fresh handful for dinner, and let me munch them raw as I garden.

But no more bush beans for me. I’m a pole bean gal now. And ‘Emerite’ convinced me.

These are the kind of beans that inspired the Jack and the Beanstalk story. They grow up and up and UP, producing lots of long, thin, delicate filet aka stringless beans. All in the space of a single tee-pee support.

While I chose these more or less on a whim, Google has since shown me many accolades for ‘Emerite’ like this one. They only reinforce my first-hand experience.

Now that I’ve been turned on, I might experiment with other pole beans. But I’ll always remember my first!