2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[VegBaby]

Hi guys, I've just joined this forum and thought I'd come over here on the bean thread to say hello and introduce myself. I've currently got a small garden at home. I'm most excited about growing some new dried climbing and bush beans. I found this forum when I found Russ' A Bean Collectors Window website. I'm so glad to have found people who are so passionate about beans!

 

[Artorius]

More beans from 2020.

Succotash - pole


Red Rooster - bush. Aussie borlotto type bean


Redland Pioneer - bush / snap, another Aussie bean.


Purple Kingsessing - pole


Sweeney Family - bush. Similar to King Of The Early, but matures later and has slightly larger seeds.

 

[Artorius]

In 2020 I also grew the Cornplanter Purple. I got these seeds from Great Lakes Staple Seeds.



I only sowed black seeds and harvested new ones only from plants that had purple pods.



I got one outcross from a plant that was growing as a bush.



The Cornplanter Purple that I recently got from Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm looks like this. It reminds me more of cut-short beans.

 

[heirloomgal]

More beans from 2020.

Succotash - pole
View attachment 39001

Red Rooster - bush. Aussie borlotto type bean
View attachment 39004

Redland Pioneer - bush / snap, another Aussie bean.
View attachment 39005

Purple Kingsessing - pole
View attachment 39018

Sweeney Family - bush. Similar to King Of The Early, but matures later and has slightly larger seeds.
View attachment 39009

Gorgeous photos @Artorius ! Really beautiful beans. That Succotash is quite a unique bean. I'd like to grow Cornplanter Purple too sometime, is it only for dry use or can you use the fresh pods also?

 

[flowerbug]

is there a long lost home for cut short beans where i can send all the ones i cull instead of eating them?

it is interesting when working with beans and crosses and getting them to settle down in the shape i'm wanting them to get and usually it seems there are some cut shorts that come up in almost every line.

i'm sure there are people who know more about that trait than i do - a hypothesis is that it works for beans grown in drier climates vs those that end up in the more wet areas, but i actually know nothing about it other than seeing it as it comes by.

 

[heirloomgal]

A couple questions for the bean experts?

After reading through the posts here from 2020, and 'A Bean Collector's Window' listings, I'm curious to know about a couple terminologies I'm not familiar with. I understand that 'greasy' beans have a glossier pod surface and look a little different. It also seems that people eat them differently, because I've seen pictures where the beans look freshly steamed, but the pods are opened up with small beans inside, as though they are eating them pod, split open, little seeds and all. I've read of course that they have 'strings', though I've never seen this in a bean, only certain snow and snap peas. Is it similar? I thought I also read that some people dry the not-yet mature pods on strings and re-constitute them later in the year in some traditional fashion. I may have misunderstood this last part, since it seems hard to imagine how that could be done without deterioration? I bought a packet of these 'greasy beans' this year, and the vendor says they are 'the best bean he's ever eaten', and I'm curious if it's a selling angle (in the eye of the beholder I guess?) and about the ways they are prepared, since they seem quite different from usual pole beans for fresh eating. Any thoughts?

I've also read the word 'day length sensitive' here and there. My guess is that this means they don't mature in time unless you live in a long season, warm climate like Mexico. But I'm not sure what that has to do with the number of daylight hours in a 24 hour period? Is there more daylight hours in a warmer climate, maybe? Years ago I read something that said peppers are 'day length sensitive', and production is triggered by the shortening days. So I'm a little confused on this, if this term refers to the same process?

 

[heirloomgal]

it is interesting when working with beans and crosses and getting them to settle down in the shape i'm wanting them to get and usually it seems there are some cut shorts that come up in almost every line.

'Cutshort'? Beans that looked clipped on the end from being packed tightly into the pod? Almost square ends? It's a reference as to how a bean seed looks, correct?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I think I can answer the second part. Plants that are Day Length Sensitive need a certain number of hours of continuous darkness in order to set off the systems that tell the plant it is time to flower.

It isn't so much that there are more daylight (or technically, more nighttime) hours further south (day and night get closer and closer to 12hours and 12 hours year round the farther south you go, but few, if any plants need that much dark) as that, the warmer you get the further you can get into that dark time without it being cold enough to kill the plants. For example, in a lot of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern parts of the world the winter is mild enough that plants can still grow though it, and a lot of plants are adapted to those day lengths, or are used to taking nearly an entire year to go seed to seed.

And I think strings are just that, tough fibers that some beans develop in the seam of the pod like the peas. Most modern beans don't have them and are hence "stringless" but some old ones do (I think Mayflower does).

'Cutshort'? Beans that looked clipped on the end from being packed tightly into the pod? Almost square ends? It's a reference as to how a bean seed looks, correct?

I think so, similar to the "crowder" trait in cowpeas or the "caterpillar/chenille" one in peas.

As for why they show up, I think it is simply a case of short spaces between ovaries. Whenever the spaces are too short (or the seed too big) to grow fully without entering into the space of the ones near it, you'll have apression and flattened edges (that's why, if you grow a crowder/cutshort type bean and it gets poor pollination so that there is space between the fertilized ovaries, they won't have flat edges.)

 

[flowerbug]

'Cutshort'? Beans that looked clipped on the end from being packed tightly into the pod? Almost square ends? It's a reference as to how a bean seed looks, correct?

yes, some beans (and peas too) i've grown have looked more like little barrels than beans.

 

[flowerbug]

@heirloomgal the phrase you can use to search for with respect to stringing and drying greasy beans is "leather britches" there may be other terms i'm not aware of, but that was the one i was told when i was given some greasy beans (which were not very reliable for me to grow here so i passed them along to someone else to try if they wanted to adapt them or not).

the points of the pod being full is that it is more nutritious and also in some beans it is actually not a desired feature at all (it makes the beans icky in some manner, either for canning or for flavor or texture or ...). for greasy beans i've had it is simply more to eat and i enjoyed them either tender without the full pod look or later when they were more plump. once the pods started drying they could also be eaten as shelly beans, but i didn't do that and we ate the dry beans like any other dry bean. they were not my favorite white bean so that was another reason why i was ok to let them go (besides them not being reliable here enough for me to use them on the fences).

leather britches were commonly cooked boiled for some time with various smoked meats added to provide more flavor. i've never done leather britches myself nor have i ever cooked any.