Jackson Wonder Bush Bean
One of the great horticultural innovations of the end of the 19th century was the development of strains of lima/ sieve/butterbeans beans that weren’t pole grown, but set on bushes.
Since the 1700s when the Sewee-Siouan people conveyed the small lunette shaped beans to settlers living on the lower Santee River, the sieva (pronounced sivvy and named after the Sewee) or butterbean had taken up a central place in Lowcountry cookery. Its cultivation spread from Florida to Maryland and westward to Louisiana. It was small, delicate, “largely grown in the South and immensely popular” [N. L. Willet Catalog, 1915]. Sometime in the 1880s farmers began to find pole grown beans less convenient to harvest than bush grown. The demand set the major American seed companies breeding. Within a brief span three important strains emerged: two from northern breeders--Henderson’s Dwarf small lima and Burpee’s Large Bush Lima. (It should be noted that northern seed companies opted for “lima” as the market category for these lunette shaped beans of whatever size. Southern seed companies kept the old nomenclature—sieva, butterbean, butterpea). A southern breeder produced the third variety, the Jackson Wonder bean. This bean’s size was one scale larger than the Henderson or the old southern sieve beans. All three beans remain in cultivation in 2020, as befits American classics. All have been steady sellers for seed companies and at the produce stand for at least 130 years.
The old Sieva beans were small in size, and could be pale green/white, mottled, brownish red to purple. They grew in bean leafed and willow leafed forms. The willow leaf was reckoned to be older, but less productive. It too remains as an available heirloom variety.
N L Willet described the Jackson Wonder bean thusly, “A flat brown bean, mottled with deep brown spots: size is somewhat larger than Sieva. Most prolific Bush Lima grown. Originated in Cobb County, Georgia, [by Thomas Jackson] and is fully adapted to all the South. Flourishes in the driest weather, and is almost drought proof. Flavor is rich and delicious. A perfect bush butter bean, growing 18 inches to 2 feet high. Begins blooming early and if kept closely picked continues to bear until frost kills the plants. Good for summer use or as a winter shelled bean. One of the most valuable introductions for Southern home gardens ever made.”
Thomas Jackson introduced the bean in 1891 in a national campaign. He made seed available to several seed companies and its widespread adoption was nearly immediate. The most astute assessment of the variety was given by W. Atlee Burpee, himself greatly concerned with breeding bush limas: “Thoroughly tested at Fordhook Farm, we would pronounce it a prolific strain of the Seckled Sieva, or small Lima, of established bush character and real merit, resembling Henderson’s Bush Lima, but larger in size of beans, with better filled pods; it is also more easily shelled than the Henderson Lima.” [Burpee’s Farm Annual 1893, p. 18].
Thomas Jackson when introducing his creation, voiced the standard southern objection to the lima beans being promoted by northern companies: they tasted bland and rather chalky. His wonder bean was “rich, marrowy, and fine flavored, nutritious and healthful, and superior in all these qualities to the lima.” Furthermore Jackson had been reading the recent scientific literature on nutrition and realized that bean flour made from Wonder Beans was well suited to a range of culinary uses. In this regard he was well in advance of popular taste.
Each pod contain three of four variegated beans. The colors--ranging from reds and browns to purples--cooked dark. This was a point of objection among those fastidious souls who only consumed pale whitish green seivas or lima beans. But among diners who rated flavor above pallid appearance, the Jackson Wonder Bean ruled supreme.
Thomas Jackson knew that his promotion of a colored bean ran against a tide of consumption fashion, for the 1890s were the heyday of white food: the white cucumber, blanched celery, white asparagus, white okra, and cream sauce. To counter the risk, Jackson released another plant simultaneously with the Wonder Bean: the Jackson Snow White Pea.
The Jackson Wonder Bean remains a favorite heirloom bush butterbean, offered by many seed companies. Unfortunately the bean meal that Thomas Jackson originally supplied to interested processors is no longer available.