Maine Sunset is a wonderful early season bean from the Paula Dubeski Bean Collection.
We love how plumb the beans are and find their ivory-white and maroon colouration rather mesmerizing. Each bean has a different splotch of maroon making each bean uniquely beautiful.
Maine Sunset beans are reliable in northern gardens and dry down before the first frost. The compact bush plants are easy to grow.
This Maine heirloom dates from at least the 1930s where it is a homestead favourite for its ability to germinate in cool soil, early maturity and outstanding flavour.
The plumb beans are said to have a creamy, nutty flavour favoured for cassoulet (baked bean dishes) aka ‘Saturday night bean suppers’, soups & stews. (We haven’t sampled them ourselves yet!).
Our original seedstock came from Paula Dubeski (Alberta).
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About the Paula Dubeski Bean Collection:
Paula is a long-time seed saver in Lacombe, Alberta who has kindly shared her bean collection with us! We are so grateful to Paula. Over the years, Paula has sought out hardy, early season varieties and then trialed and stewarded these beans in her Zone 3b garden. Paula, along with her growing partner Amy, have helped make these early season beans even better through their efforts to adapt these varieties to the challenges of her Zone 3b gardens.
Paula has taken the guesswork out of which beans will do well in a short season garden. We currently offer King of the Early, Maine Sunset, Tiger’s Eye & White Cloud Cannellini from her collection. Over time we will continue to add more of her beans to our lineup.
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How to Plant
Sowing: Plant bean seeds in the spring when the soil warms up — usually the end of May/early June. Keep soil moist until seedlings emerge (1 week or so).
Spacing: Space seeds 3 inches or so apart and sow 1 inch or so deep.
Thinning: Thin to 6 inches apart once seedlings are up (3 to 4 inches tall).
How to Pick Dry Beans: Pick beans when the pods are dry on the plant. All of our dry bean varieties have to reliably dry down by around Sept 15 (when we risk getting frost) and this one does. However, if there is a frost threatening and your beans still need time to dry, pick the pods and bring them inside to dry. They are ready as dry beans when the pods are ‘crunchy’ dry. Shell and use.
Within Canada only shipping on beans, thank you.
