Dictionary

gully bean en · NOUN

Etymology

So called because the bushes grow wild, especially in gullies, and the bean-like fruits are used to season certain foods.

Meanings

1. A fruit of a wild eggplant or susumber plant (Solanum torvum).
   • Preserves here featured a number of products in brine, namely gully beans, corn, carrot and breadfruit. Other exhibits here included pineapple, cucumber, pickle, castor oil, banana, vinegar, pepper pot soup in bottles. 1977, Farmer:
   • They go up into the hills to pick gully beans, up into deep green spicy woods with the sun hot in dappled patches on the men's glistening backs, with strange birds screeching and goats neighing loudly in the afternoon air. 2008, Jane Covernton, Cutlass Time, →ISBN, page 187:
   • “Steam fish, bananas, dumplings, gully beans and okra.” “You cooked that kind of food on a Sunday? Was I so fast asleep that you couldn't wake me up and ask me what I wanted? Gully beans, what's that?” “Susumber, it's good to cook with ...” 2016, Austin Mitchell, Uptown Lovers, →ISBN:

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