Recent content by ruralmamma

@Heliena, I grew the Cave bean twice and had a good harvest one year and was fighting the frost the second. My growing season is a few weeks longer than yours. I was amazed at how vigorous the vines were as they climbed to the top of the 8' trellis and spilled over the side. Have you ever...

Welcome @Heliena! Last year was my first year participating and this is a great and knowledgeable group of bean enthusiasts.

The clerk at the larger post office has been there for years and is probably close to retirement. Evidently her purpose is to treat every transaction with the scrutiny of a drill sergeant. :D I seldom go to to post office where my mail comes from because it's eleven miles away in a direction I...

I had a little bit of a shock when I was at the post office in town last week. The clerk wouldn't accept a package to be mailed out of the US because the customs label wasn't detailed enough. It simply said toys and candy and the clerk said it must state the specific toy and the specific brand...

I think I was looking at last year's priority list instead of this year's. I know Otis Stewart will definitely be on the lineup for this year but may hold off on the others unless @Blue-Jay needs more.

I did get a few tan seeds but the majority vere blue. I'd thought I read that cool temperatures ultimately impacted seed color but I harvested more blue seed from my Meerbarbe/Nona Agnes mix this year than last year with similar conditions. I wonder how much nighttime temperatures affect...

Now for the 2025 off-types: Batumi Georgia 4 True to type on bottom and top is a beautiful speckled off-type. Beautiful coloring on both and believe it's productivity was hampered by drought and being planted too close to more vigorous varieties. Plan to grow both this year. Cold Creek...

Thank you! So glad they arrived safely. All of the blue beans were beautiful this year and I'm assuming it was due to the drought and extreme heat. No off-types of September Blue either I have an ample supply of most of the beans and reserved a few of each variety for storage in my parents...

They're too beautiful to eat! I'll have to grab a new photo of them next time I'm home. My main concern was growing enough for seed this year. Will sample them next year The off-type was blue/purplish when it was harvested. Will pull it out and see how it looks now that a few months have...

Pods start out as green but as they mature they turn a beautiful bright pink. The UPS guy thought they were flowers.

This is the only one I can find at the moment.

I've had some major setbacks in the past month but finally posted my bean show in the 2025 thread. I'm currently in limbo on the 2026 garden. I'm determined to regrow six Network varieties that either didn't do well or produced a number of off-types in 2025 and holding off on making any...

Wren's Egg was the first dry bush bean to mature. Larger than the average dry bean and a decent harvest considering I lost two of the four plants early in the season. I did lose a few lingering pods to late season rains. Ma Williams was the star of the show in 2025 with her bright pink...

I had three reasons for choosing Schwarze Witwe. One was the German origin, another was the translation of the name (black widow) and finally the coloration! Isn't it absolutely beautiful? Average harvest with no issues. September Blue produced beautiful seed! Average harvest which I...

Pinktip was a bit of a mystery as the seed return envelope was labeled Pinktip Greasy and that's how I labeled it. Pods and seed were huge and not a bit greasy. Realized this was indeed Pinktip. Average harvest though late season rains wrecked havoc on the seed. Railroad was my most...