Phaseolus vulgaris

Also known as the Lenape Blue Bread Bean, the Purple Kingsessing Bean is known as the oldest documented Lenape bean, dating to at least the mid-1600s. Of course, just because colonists first documented it in the 1600's, does not mean that is its actual age. It had certainly been grown for many generations before someone with pen and paper happened upon it. The name 'Kingsessing' comes from the Lenape word 'chinsessing', which means 'a place where there is a meadow', which was an ancient trading place where modern day Philadelphia now stands. These beans went with the Lenape when they were forcibly removed to Oklahoma in the 1860's, and were later entrusted to seed historian and preservationist William Woys Weaver.

Vigorous and productive, vines grow 6-8 feet and produce dark purple seeds with the occasional tan bean. Rich, meaty flavor. The Lenape ground the beans and baked them into a bread.

80 days to dry beans

Pole habit