McCaslan
66 Days — The vines produce prolifically throughout the growing season. Its pods
are up to eight inches long and used as snap (green or string) beans or leaving them on the vine a bit longer, green shelled. If left even longer, the plump, white seeds are even good as a dry bean.
Now a Southern favorite, it is an old family heirloom from the McCasland family of Georgia who had raised it for many years. Upon the death of Mr. McCasland, a small stock of seed was sent in to the now defunct, H. G. Hastings Seed Company of Atlanta, Georgia, who subsequently introduced it to the public in 1912. This is what they had to say in their spring seed catalog that year:
"The McCasland bean came to us in a peculiar way. A Mr. McCasland, one of our Georgia customers, had been a great admirer of our house and a planter of Hastings' Seeds for years. On his death a few years ago Mrs. McCasland sent us a pint of this bean with a statement that it had been in the family for years and that her husband before his death had expressed the wish that this splendid bean should be placed in our hands. She also asked that we name it after her husband, which we gladly do, although we would have been greatly pleased to have given our own name to it."
An interesting note is that although Hastings' introduced the bean in 1912 as "McCasland," in 1916, still using the exact account noted above, they unceremoniously and without explanation, changed the bean's name to 'McCaslan'.
David Pendergrass, our seed grower in Tennessee adds, "
This old Southern favorite has a very delicious flavor that our family has loved for generations and is one of my favorites for canning." Each packet contains one ounce, which is approximately 80 seeds.
