Sacaton Brown Tepary

Tepary bean species adapted to the low desert climates of what is now the southwesten U.S. and Northern Mexico. These drought-tolerant beans produce sprawling bush plants with multiple, twining runners, and the pods are sheltered mostly on the underside of the plant. Sacaton Brown tepary is being adapted to the Willamette Valley, OR by Adaptive Seeds, via Native Seeds/SEARCH, and is original to the Gila River Indian Community, where it is known as S’oam bawi. Despite the different soils and climate, it performs very well when dry farmed in Oregon, yielding hearty-tasting beans high in fiber and protein, that hold their form very well after long cooking. This desert-adapted variety requires warmer soil to germinate. They are adapted to put on vigorous vegetative growth following summer monsoons, so it is best not to irrigate them later into the seaon, to allow them time to mature and dry down in the short growing seasons of the Pacific Northwest. Can also double as a drought tolerant ground cover or forage crop.