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Baker Ray rearranged the chaw in his jaw and mumbled, “Ain’t nuthin’ beats a mess of Greasy beans.” And most mountain farmers and gardeners worth their salt would agree. 

If you walk the aisles of the Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville this time of year, you’ll find many different tasty varieties of the Greasy for sale by the bushel. The question is, “What in the world is a Greasy bean anyway?” 

Seed-saving guru Bill Best of Berea, Kentucky, in his popular book, “Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste,” says, “Greasy beans are usually thought of as being the best of Appalachian heirloom beans. Greasy beans are so named because they have slick hulls that look as if they have a thin coat of grease on them, and they are exceptionally tender and tasty.” And folks who have feasted on this mountain delicacy wouldn’t trade a cup of their favorite Greasy’s for a bushel of Blue Lakes.

What’s not known is just how many varieties of Greasys there are. Bill Best will tell you that just about every family in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee had their own variety they had cultivated for generations. What is known is that the Greasy was grown in these very hills by the Cherokee long before any white man ever traipsed this land. 

What sets the Greasy bean apart from so many modern-day hybrids, besides taste and tenderness, is the fact that you can see the bean inside the bean pod when you pick it. And it’s the bean that adds flavor as well as protein. The Greasy is not just good, it’s also good for you! 

Of course, the hunk of fatback most mountain cooks add to the pot may take away some of the health benefits, but it sure is good!

Leather britches are an old-timey way of preserving your Greasy beans. Before the day of pressure cookers and canning jars, the settlers learned from their Native American neighbors tried and true methods of preserving food. 

I remember my own mountain grandmother drying her Greasy backs (one variety of the Greasy bean) using this method. After harvest, the fresh beans are strung and a darning needle with heavy thread is run through the centers of the beans and taken down to a knot that’s been tied to the end of the string. The beans are crowded to lengths of one to two feet on the string. Then, the beans are hung to dry in the hot late summer sun. Once thoroughly dried, they are removed from the string and placed in bags. 

My grandmother used cloth flour sacks. She would then hang the sacks in her pantry. When she was ready to cook them, usually around Thanksgiving or Christmas, she would soak them in a pot of water overnight and put them on the stove the next morning with a generous chunk of pork to cook for four or five hours. 

A steaming plate of Greasy beans, along with a piping hot cake of cornbread and maybe an onion, is a flavorsome, rib-sticking meal that will cause even a flat-lander to smack his lips with delight!