Why is Delaware #1 in lima beans?
Delaware is a small state. Yet in USDA's latest count, its farms harvested more acres of green lima beans than any other state's. USDA's table does not say why. The background runs through a bean named after a city in Peru, a lucky little plant found in a garden, a hundred years of canneries, and a bean that minds warm nights.
In USDA's 2022 count, Delaware's farms harvested more acres of green lima beans than any other state's. Green limas are picked while the seeds are still soft. Check the ranking in the quiz below. This is Delaware's only #1 on this site. Another note looks at how Delaware grows limas in the same fields as other crops, and at the old climbing limas that some families still keep.
Basis: USDA NASS Quick Stats, BEANS, GREEN, LIMA - ACRES HARVESTED, 2022 Census of Agriculture (only states with published figures). The numbers, the full ranking and the source are on the quiz page.
Why “lima”? The U.S. National Agricultural Library, part of USDA, explains that the name comes from Lima, the capital of Peru in South America, even though in English people say “LIME-uh.” Long ago in Peru, the Moche people (about A.D. 100 to 800) treated lima beans as something special, and their pottery even shows “bean warriors.” Lima beans reached early America, too: in 1793 George Washington sent some lima beans to his Mount Vernon estate, to be given to the gardener, because Martha Washington wanted it.
Who says so: USDA National Agricultural Library (opens in a new tab)
Lima beans used to be climbing plants that needed poles. Then, in 1890, a man named Asa Palmer in Chester, Pennsylvania, noticed something odd. Cutworms (caterpillars that chew young plants) had wiped out his bean patch, but one little plant was still doing well, and it was a bush, only about a foot high, not a climber. He planted its seeds the next year and sold the seeds to the Burpee seed company. By 1907, the bush lima bean had been developed and named the Fordhook. Later, a USDA breeder developed a bush lima called Fordhook 242, which kept producing even in hot weather.
Who says so: USDA National Agricultural Library (opens in a new tab)
In Delaware, canning (sealing food in cans) grew into a real business starting in the 1870s. A 1961 history of the industry, written at the University of Delaware, says the early canneries packed lots of peaches, a big Delaware crop until about 1890. Soon tomatoes became important, with tomato canneries in almost every town. June peas were popular with canners almost from the start, and they left enough time to grow a second crop of another kind. Lima beans became more and more popular in the 1930s, and by 1961 they had an important place as that second crop. Back then, two canneries in Sussex County packed only two crops: peas and lima beans.
What about today? University of Delaware Extension says Delaware has the most acres of processing vegetables in its region: crops grown to be frozen, canned or pickled. Processing companies sign contracts with farmers and usually handle the harvest themselves, with special machines. Delaware's level fields and sandy soils can handle this big equipment better than other areas in the region. You might even see a parade of pea and lima bean viners (harvesting machines) moving from one field to the next. Lima beans are picked while the seeds are still soft and juicy, and shelled limas spoil very quickly, which is why they are sold frozen or canned. Most Delaware limas are the green baby type, headed for the freezer. To spot a lima field, look for clusters of small white flowers poking from the tops of the plants.
Who says so: University of Delaware (College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Cooperative Extension) (opens in a new tab)
Warmer summers could be a challenge for lima beans. A University of Delaware scientist reports that warmer growing seasons are already causing some vegetable losses from heat stress. Her findings suggest that high heat does not necessarily slow how fast the lima plant grows. The trouble comes when nights are too warm: then the flowers' pollen (the dust a flower needs to make seeds) does not develop and get released properly, so fewer seeds form. The early flowering time matters most. So the university is breeding lima beans that could handle more heat. She calls a heat-tolerant variety one of the easiest ways to adapt: “You just plant a different variety.”
Who says so: University of Delaware (UDaily, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources) (opens in a new tab)
Note: a “theory”, “folklore” or “outlook” is not settled fact. Always check who is saying it.
📊 Sources for the rankings mentioned in this note (links to the original data and retrieval dates) are on each quiz page below.