2018 Little Easy Bean Network - Join Us In Saving Amazing Heirloom Beans

Bluejay77 said:

"HASHULI BROWN & WHITE" - Pole Dry. This years grow out of this bean was not like the first time I grew it three years ago. Not a lot of seed of this bean's seeds filled out well. Much of the seed crop was shriveled and sunken in places. Was it the weather? Did it not get enough water often enough? Purchased this bean from Baker Creek Seeds in 2015. I believe Joseph Simcox originally purchased seed of this bean in a market in Hashuli, Georgia (the country of Georgia).

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I grew these as well this year, from the bonus seed you sent me, and it grew like a champ! I grew 4 plants and got more than a quart mason jar of beans back (I mean, they're big beans, so maybe that's not so impressive, but still...). I did have the bean bed on a drip system (since we get basically no rain all summer), and didn't get any sunken/shriveled beans, so it could be that water levels were the culprit.

I cooked up a pot of "extra" beans (beans that weren't quite dry enough, were a bit split, etc), and the Hashuli Brown and White cooked up to be the size of the first knuckle of my thumb. Huge! (Both my thumbs and the bean, hehe.) Texture and flavor was kind of potato-ey... like a kidney bean but not with that sweet undertone.

saritabee said:

Hopefully mine will be in the mail soon -- all of my seed is dry, except for the Harriet's Black Hook, which seem to have gotten to the stage where they're semi-hard but you can still easily mark them with your fingernail... and then stopped. They've been like that for over a month. I have a bunch of dessicant packets in with the seed now; I hope that will help. Or if anyone has a better idea...?

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after a month they're probably ok. some seeds may have a thinner coat.

i'm just packing up odds and ends here too. it's been fun this season with so much happening...

@Bluejay77 those Kelly Lake are interesting for sure, love the yellow ones. i notice there are some markings on a few of the yellow and red seeds that look like little blisters. i've had a fair amount of that appearing this season and i'm thinking it was just weather and not disease, but i don't know for sure?

in some cases i have only a few seeds of a selection and a few of them may be marked in various ways, i don't want to plant them if i can help it so i usually do only plant seeds that look as nice as possible so i'm not continuing a potentially diseased seed line.


also regarding, "Knepley's 40 Bushel" it looks just like a cross i've seen here (likely from the Top Notch and either the Pink Tip or the Molasses Face (there i've finally said it ).

every year i get a few new crosses that match up with other well known varieties so i'm actually made quite happy by this in that i'm seeing nature mixing genes and providing variations upon the themes i am seeing.

one theme i am not seeing much of though are small and flat beans. i have a cross i've grown out that is fairly flat, and in a few cases the beans are actually cup shaped. i've always been looking for beans which are early enough, smaller, prolific and produce no matter what the soils and weather is like. these so far are fitting those criteria. as a breeding stock to cross with other beans i think these will be very good. i've selected from it so far three groups (Dark, Light and then the Medium is what's left). i'll send some from each because i have room in the package and perhaps someone else will be interested in these too. this is the third season i've grown them in all sorts of conditions.

i'm suspecting from the seed coat that they are a cross between Pinto and one of the Peregion selections which gives off similar pods and has similar growth habit. one reason i plant the Peregion selections to begin with is that they produce well no matter what and i think for the future it is good to have some of these basic traits captured in smaller seeds because i don't think the weather is going to get cooler and more stable nor do i think that many of the topsoils are going to be improving so these seeds have potential to be used by people on the margin in harder places to grow or even possibly as a cover crop.

Lemon Slice



for the full resolution image see my bean page as usual...

flowerbug said:

Lemon Slice

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Nice looking bean. I take it that is your outcross. Slightly looks to me like a butterscotch colored "Goats Eye".

saritabee said:

I grew these as well this year, from the bonus seed you sent me, and it grew like a champ!

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I grew Hashuli in 2015 and it grew fabulously well. I'll just have to try them again next year.

saritabee said:

Hopefully mine will be in the mail soon -- all of my seed is dry, except for the Harriet's Black Hook, which seem to have gotten to the stage where they're semi-hard but you can still easily mark them with your fingernail... and then stopped. They've been like that for over a month. I have a bunch of dessicant packets in with the seed now; I hope that will help. Or if anyone has a better idea...?

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When you say you have dessicant packets "IN" with the seed now. Do you have the seed enclosed in a container? If so... I wonder if maybe the Harriet's Hook wouldn't dry better open air on a paper or styro plate open to air circulation in your house.

''KORONIS PINTO TROUT" - Bush Dry. A Robert Lobitz original bean that he did name and introduced through the Seed Savers Exchange possibly in 1999 as he released a number of Koronis named beans that year. I acquired this bean also from the Inspirations Garden Centre in Exeter, Tasmania, Australia in 2017. This summer I had no problem with this one growing true to type.

"Koronis Pinto Trout" - Bush Dry.

#28-01-03A - "OSAKIS" - Semi Runner Dry. Another Robert Lobitz Legacy Bean that I have been working with since 2015. The bean is productive and looks stikingly similar to one of my original beans called "Choctaw". Robert's code for this bean was 01-03A. This bean has grown true several times. I named the bean after a little town in the northwest part of the county that Robert lived in of Stearns. The town where Robert had lived is called Paynesville in Minnesota.

"Osakis" - Semi Runner dry.

"Lavender Brown" - Semi Runner dry. Back in the 1980's I discovered an outcross that gave light lavender seeds with somewhat irregular in shape. I had named that bean Lavender. I reacquired it several years ago from my donations list at SSE and grew it. Then regrew it again two years ago and the bean gave off this brown bean which looked much nicer. I gave it the working title of Lavender Brown as I now know that it came from that outcross I named Lavender. After growing the this brown bean this summer it produced all brown seed with no off type seed coats.

"Lavender Brown" - Semi Runner Dry.

"LILA STUART" - Bush Dry. This is a bean I had acquired once back in the early 1980's from John Withee's Wanigan bean network. He gave the bean a short description as a bean that is "White kidney shaped with a large red eye patch over the eye. Lynnfield is similar with a broken patch and a bit of orange". End of John's quote. Since I grew both beans at one time and the seed of both seemed so similar in shape and size. Both with an eye patch that covers about the same area of the seed. And since John refered to "Lynnfield" in the description of this bean I have always had the feeling that Lila Stuart was a segregation of "Lynnfield". One being a bush and one being a pole bean. This bean was unique looking to me at the time and I have always liked it. I have since seen more beans similar to it in appearance.

"Lila Stuart" - Bush Dry.

''LINA SISCO BIRD EGG" - Bush Dry. A very productive bush cranberry type bean. The bean is always consistent. I don't think anyone who has ever been involved with Seed Savers Exchange can go very long without eventually knowing the little short story of this bean. Lina Sisco was one of the original six members of SSE when it was formed in 1975 in Princeton, Missouri. Lina Sisco's grandmother had brought this bean from Georgia in 1880 to Missouri by covered wagon. Lina Sisco donated the bean to SSE and it is usually always included in their seed catalog. Probably SSE's first bean with a story.

"Lina Sisco Bird Egg" - Bush Dry.

Bluejay77 said:

When you say you have dessicant packets "IN" with the seed now. Do you have the seed enclosed in a container? If so... I wonder if maybe the Harriet's Hook wouldn't dry better open air on a paper or styro plate open to air circulation in your house.

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I have the sitting in a big sieve now, with the dessicant packets mixed in (I got a TON of beans off these plants, they were monsters!). I did have them in a couple (open) jars at first, so I maybe they just need more time in the sieve with better air circulation...

Spread them out in a thin layer and direct a low speed fan to blow gently over them.

Jars and other containers restrict air flow, trap humidity and favor mold growth if you put the seeds in them too soon. I learned this the hard way many moons ago!