2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[Blue-Jay]

@Blue-Jay I need to mail you my September Blue beans and will do that very soon. Fall was crazy busy and some of my September Blues had a drying issue. I wanted to make sure these were fully dry before sending. I am happy to grow them out again this year.

I'd also love to give one of the Italian varieties a try - Purgatorio.

Hi @heartsong111,

email me with what you would like to grow out this coming summer (upadam@comcast.net). If you don't have enough of the September Blue just hang on to them and grow them again. September Blue is a bean still a work in progress.

I've got Purgatorio but I just noticed I don't have it listed on the website. Will have to take care of that sometime.

 

[Artorius]

Welcome everyone in the new year!

This year I will only have those network beans that have not been successfully grown so far. I will not order new ones because I don't know when I will be able to send anything to the US. Only correspondence and documents can be sent from Poland. @Blue-Jay, I hope I don't have to wait another three years to send you last year's returns.

This weekend I will start sorting the 2025 bean seeds. I will probably take a few photos too so I have something to show here.

Happy New Year!

 

[Artorius]

@Artorius,

Your package is in the mail on it's way to your friend in Paris. Two surprise packets are in the package from flowerbug. Also a surprise bean from me. It's something I'm trying to stabalize. I think it's neat looking. Hope you have fun with it. I have already given it a name. I also added a bush lima that I had sitting in my freezer that I got from a fellow in Iowa who had a large pole lima collection, He would sometime breed limas. He must have sent this bean to me about 6 years ago. I thought it would surely be a pole lima but it wound up being a bush. I usually don't care for bush limas but this one is colored differently than all the commercial bush limas that have a light green tint to them. I know I will grow this one more.

@Blue-Jay, @flowerbug, thank you very much!

 

[Blue-Jay]

This year I will only have those network beans that have not been successfully grown so far. I will not order new ones because I don't know when I will be able to send anything to the US. Only correspondence and documents can be sent from Poland. @Blue-Jay, I hope I don't have to wait another three years to send you last year's returns.

What is the problem with being able to mail package from Europe to countries overseas? I got a message from a Network grower in France who said I will mail the return pakage when things return to normal. So why are things now abnormal. Also a Network in grower Germany who usually has their seeds mailed back long before now. This must be affecting all the EU countries.

 

[Artorius]

@Blue-Jay
This seems to be due to the sudden change in US customs regulations. This caused chaos and confusion among postal services in Europe because no one was prepared. Shipments are being suspended until the US government develops clear and precise guidelines.

For example, I can still send parcels to Canada without any problem.

 

[Million Bells]

Next up, Blue Shackamaxon. Very prolific and nicely timed. I checked a few early pods and saw blue, but those didn't dry down once I opened them. I still need to make them up and see how the color is in the pot.

PA Dutch Cherry Pole was a disappointment. I had a few early pods, but they were attacked by green stink bugs. A lot of beans got sorted out because they just didn't look like something I wanted to eat. I don't know if it was just a bad year or there are too many pests for this variety.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I'm still in the process of sorting and packaging 2025's seed crop for the freezer. When I'm done. I will do my 2025 bean show on this years 2026 thread. I need a new camera. I've taken over a hundred photos of beans with my phones camera. They are not terrible photos but still think in my opinion the photos are not as good as a digital hand held camera. All of my bean photos have been taken with my 2003 version of a Canon Powershot G3 4 MP camera. I wore out the original and have been buying used ones on Ebay for about 10 years because I have the software installed on one of my computers that runs Windows XP. Canon Powershot G3's are mostly now just junk on Ebay. For parts only. Looks like it's time to move on to new gear.

Oh I have newer computers that I use to get on the internet. I have a gaming computer with a SSD drive and Windows 11. I just like the way some of the old softwarr pages look better than the new software. I do a purchase of a Windows XP machine from time to time on Ebay when I wear the out current one and it finally blue screens. All my data is kept on thumb drives.

 

[heirloomgal]

Some really, really great news @Blue-Jay. After 3 days of working through this Zonos App for shipping into the US - I finally have the QR code and the proper shipping label + a tracking number. We had to do it all ourselves at this end. I don't think Canada Post is even printing the shipping labels, it looks like this is mostly an online process now where the shipper prints their own label after submitting all the proper forms and fills in all the information. I'm kind of in shock that the label just came out of my own printer after what seemed like an eternity! Lol

After the first hour of going through the process with my helper friend, I handed the whole thing over to him as I was totally lost. (He labelled the contents correctly though as I was there for that.) Just so many confusing steps and scanning all these codes and things that are way out of my wheelhouse. I give credit to the people who have the skills to maneuver these apps. My friend though feels that, now that he's completed the process, it's not hard beyond the first time doing it. He said he feels like he could do it again now in 1/100th of the time. The most complicated part was where the roads converged between the Zonos App and the Canada Post shipping system. He said that was tricky to navigate because Zonos covers certain aspects, Canada Post other things, and yet they are also interlinked and need information from one another. Anyway, I bring the parcel to the post tomorrow and hand it over, fully labelled. I will get them to give it a look and make sure everything looks right. What a relief to have finally faced that down!

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm still in the process of sorting and packaging 2025's seed crop for the freezer. When I'm done. I will do my 2025 bean show on this years 2026 thread. I need a new camera. I've taken over a hundred photos of beans with my phones camera. They are not terrible photos but still think in my opinion the photos are not as good as a digital hand held camera. All of my bean photos have been taken with my 2003 version of a Canon Powershot G3 4 MP camera. I wore out the original and have been buying used ones on Ebay for about 10 years because I have the software installed on one of my computers that runs Windows XP. Canon Powershot G3's are mostly now just junk on Ebay. For parts only. Looks like it's time to move on to new gear.

Oh I have newer computers that I use to get on the internet. I have a gaming computer with a SSD drive and Windows 11. I just like the way some of the old softwarr pages look better than the new software. I do a purchase of a Windows XP machine from time to time on Ebay when I wear the out current one and it finally blue screens. All my data is kept on thumb drives.

Yes, I feel too that the digital cameras took such good photos, whereas the phone and ipad cameras not as good. The lenses on them are so much smaller, so to get those nice bright shots that really show the colors you need really top notch lighting to make up for that small lens. The digital cameras have that nice big lens, so much more capable for picture taking. A friend of mine last year got a new super duper high quality phone, and it does take some really superb photos - in the outdoor light. Inside not as much, but the capture outdoors is excellent.