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Thanks. Yes, maybe the flatter ones are just a little older. I cooked the picked beans and found they were OK, but needed just a little longer than some to become tender so, as you say, they seem to need to be picked very young My seed was from 2016. Perhaps the same vintage as yours? I’m...

I'm growing Purple Rose for seed for the network. It's an early variety, and already has beans ahead of most of my others. It's producing two shapes of bean, each purple but one fairly flat and the other round in cross section and deeper purple. I'm wondering whether both bean types are...

Flowerbug, that is very kind. Customs do let beans through though to be on the safe side it’s always a good idea to call them craft beans or some such. But in fact I have got the grey, real McCoy DG. I had it from Bohnen-Atlas just over a year ago and grew it last season. I don’t know whether...

Thanks for the replies. The photo in my post was of the beans I received as Dapple Grey. The ones on the Restoration site are brown but a bit lighter. https://www.restorationseeds.com/collections/beans/products/dapple-grey-bean?_pos=1&_sid=abf9fc258&_ss=r Mine are really quite a deep strong...

Dapple Grey I've received seeds named as Dapple Grey which have very different colouring from the Dapple Grey I've grown before Mine have been very much the same as the ones on your website, Russ - quite a light grey. This second kind of bean is like the 'Dapple Grey" featured on Restoration...

Looking forward to growing Ernie's Big Eye. I'll also be growing Mugungi. Is anything known about the origins of this bean. It sounds rather African perhaps but there doesn't seem to be a place called Mugungi

Thanks Russell. I found an online form for submitting queries to them so will see if I get a reply. They seem to have been taken over by a company called Barenbrug so I’m not very hopeful but we’ll see. Good to know who your source was

Preston’s Old Family Heirloom Is one of the seeds I’ve received to grow out fir the Network. Trying to find out a bit about any history for it, I came across Preston ‘s Bush Bean which seems to be around in Australia, for example...

Yes, wouldn’t that be wonderful. Perhaps eventually DNA testing will become more available and origins and development of varieties will be at our fingertips! A little time to wait though, I imagine!

Thank goodness for that!! Very relieved after all the delay and red tape. Very pleased you liked them too. I'd love to grow Ernie's Big Eye and anything else you think might suit. I'll email you separately in a day or two with some thoughts and requests.

I also grew Brejo this season for the Heritage Seed Library in UK. My seed also was just as you describe, flattish and tending to be curved. I was also given seed named as Merveille de Piemonte. I was interested that hey seemed to me to be just the same as the Brejo, both in the seeds and the...

Penland Family refused to thrive for me this year. The foliage growth was very fine and delicate but it didn’t climb and didn’t produce anything except a couple of small flowers. I wonder whether it needs rather warm conditions to prosper?

Yes, you sent everything in very good order I think. Intending to get my head round it when I’ve got the seeds ready, so hope all becomes clear and possible. I know it’s important to get it right! 🤞🤞

Thanks. Will certainly ask for some when I return mine. Some,eg Slut, are still drying. I’m hoping to manage the complexities of sending one or two extra varieties through customs etc.

Yes, that would be a good arrangement and more straightforward. Thanks for the suggestion. Do you have any thoughts about whether Tennessee Wonder might be related to Wesley Railroad Spike?

That would be great but I live in UK. Happy to do some swapping if you don’t mind the international postage.

I’m interested in the Wesley Railroad Spike. In the photos posted by Lori B, the pods and the dried beans look very like a bean I had from Bohnen-Atlas - Tennessee Wonder. I think you have this one too, Russ. Am I right in thinking they’re almost identical?

In answer to your questions, Russ. I discovered this season that I do have bean weevil as I found some seed in storage had got the little beasties. I'd not had any trouble before but I'm growing more beans now so I guess there's more to attract them. And yes, thanks, you did very efficiently...

Thanks Russ. I’d really like to try Anasazi again. I’ll also email you when the season’s over and see if there’s any other variety that’s at all useful to you. A practical question: do you freeze beans on arrival as a matter of course to eliminate any possible weevils, or shall I put them in...

I have grown just two network beans - Mbombo Green and Anasazi. Both have struggled a little and neither for me has been a pole bean in eastern England. Mbombo Green made it to about three feet high; Anasazi was a rather delicate tangle of a bush. Luckily Mbombo Green which has finished...