I am growing the Borlotti "Fire Tongue" type, which have fabulous
taste, but every year in early october (first frost) I have big vines
covered in green pods, with more pods on the vine than in the freezer.
This heirloom is perhaps best for a gardener 200 miles to the south.

I mostly fresh-freeze them for the winter. Next year I will be looking
for an earlier type. I still want a pole bean because cabbage and other
greens like the shade and nitrogen that these plants provide. I am well
aware that scarlet runner beans are precocious, but I don't know about
taste and productivity. The Borlotti have great taste but I never met a
fresh bean that I did not like, so I will be looking for a productive
early pole shelling bean. Suggestions anyone?