Rather early bean. Vines grow 6-7' with rose pink flowers.  From Lenape Indians of Delaware. This variety is traditional to the Lenape tribe, who carried it along as colonization and violence pushed the Lenape further and further west. The variety is first recorded as appearing in communities near Philadelphia. Beans are a bright navy blue when young and the mature cutshort is blue-black. When the pods dry, they turn a purple-blue color. The bean was cooked in “black mush,” a type of early American polenta made with blue or black cornmeal.  The oldest strains of Blue Shackamaxon were grown by Pennsylvania farmers more as curiosities than as table vegetables. For this reason, the bean never underwent concerted breeding improvements.