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Interesting. Where you have taken comparative photos in sun and also in shade the apparent difference in colour is considerable. The sun photos are very appealing but I’m thinking that the shade photos probably give more of a faithful impression of the true colour and also show detail more...

On the subject of Polish commercial varieties I’d very much like to understand the naming of a bean I’ve recently received. It is held by Bohnenatlas but was threatened with extinction. A friend managed to germinate some old seed and has given me some seeds to grow on. I’d like to bulk it up and...

I find beds of lettuces extremely satisfying, alternate rows of green and red-flushed, of smooth leaved and crinkly leaved, for example. So I grow more than we eat. I’ve enjoyed many of the varieties bred by Frank Morton. I’ve also very much enjoyed experimenting with which varieties will...

That’s extremely impressive. A great achievement.

I do find that they’re late but they have made it in time reasonably comfortably. In a cool season it might be quite borderline.

That’s a huge amount of varieties in your seed crop, not to mention a host of other life pressures. I feel at full stretch doing roughly half of the numbers you do. The only things I do more of would be that I that I do 20+ lettuce varieties, (guessing because I haven’t counted yet), more...

I'm delighted you had good true-to-type seed as I grew them myself and had some off-types - plain black. Were all yours true St Anthony?

It seems that the term is used differently in UK from in US. I think @flowerbug is right in suggesting a connection with size but in Britain the term seems historically to be used for this kind of bi-coloured bean whereas in US it is more likely to be used for navy beans, ie. small white beans...

As far as I’m aware, the most common European varieties with roughly that patterning but not that colouring are pea beans which come with different but related names. I have grown Pea Bean, Inca Pea Bean. Oddly though there is also Kjem's Pea Bean but that has entirely different patterning. And...

Your Chantenay Red look great. Beautifully healthy. It's a good standard in UK too alongside, in my case, Early Nantes, Amsterdam Forcing and Autumn King. I love growing purple carrots too but find Black Nebula unsatisfactory, because they seem rather thin in shape more than on grounds of taste...

Interesting. Horseradish makes a large, strong vigorous plant eventually, and it is indeed invasive. Where I used to live a field of allotments on which locals grew vegetables was turned into a sports field. It was regularly mown. But if the grass was left two or three weeks, large horseradish...

I've never grown Hamburg parsley root. It looks very interesting and I think I must have a go. Like celeriac it seems to benefit from a lot of moisture. Presumably the leaves are good too, so double value. Apparently it's quite hardy so could be started early. And although it doesn't like root...

I’ve never grown celeriac as beautifully round as those in your link @digitS' but I usually get usable roots. I just wanted to add though that in my climate I start them rather earlier than eight weeks before the last frost. I start mine in February which is more like 12 weeks before the first...

Please could you explain further, @Blue-Jay. I’m growing Rio Zape this year too. Some of the last of them are stained but I have plenty of good seeds. But how can I tell whether they’re the original version or the one bred by U of California. And why did they breed another version?

That’s good. And in other ways I rate this bean very highly. It pods beautifully easily at the shelly stage too. You can just pull the string away and the pod falls open giving you delicious softest shelled beans. And it bears prolifically too. It’s been adopted by the Slow Food Foundation who...

I have picked just one pod. In view of your experience and the fact that the weather has turned rather wetter for a few days, I think I’ll open it and pick more too. Thanks for the warning. They do indeed seem reluctant to dry out. In fact I’ve just paid my one pod a visit and thankfully it...

Mine are all podded except for the few varieties which still need to dry down further. Some are still out there as we’re having a dry autumn with still no frost forecast up to the end of the month. Still lingering are Rose, Panzaredda, Rio Zape, Blue Greasy Grits, Blaue aus Ungarn, Fat Man...

I’ve grown Chantenay Red Cored quite frequently. It’s always stump-nosed like yours but often somewhat longer. It’s a friendly carrot and I love your particularly short fat ones!

And less seed loss perhaps? All you need is a handy friend! There are online design plans, eg. Real Seeds. My son made one successfully, but it did take him many hours. But good luck with your processing. Would a rolling pin crush them more finely and help with winnowing?

I have grown Ohio Pole and also grown it under the name Miami Ohio which is apparently the same bean (https://www.seedways.org/product-page/ohio-miami-pole-bean) My note for Miami Ohio in 2021 goes “Quality of seed not of the best. Takes a long time to dry down” so my experience was obviously...