2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[heirloomgal]

MN-150 cow peas in my zone 3 garden! I've never seen cowpeas anywhere close to this garden, so this is a bit of a shock. About 1/3 of the pods were dry, and I probably should have cut down the plants because I think they may have been frosted last night, but we'll see. Definitely a keeper.

ETA: THANK YOU @Zeedman for these and for all the work you do to preserve such treasures!

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GORGEOUS plants jb! What a pod set!!

 

[flowerbug]

it was a beautiful day for picking beans. i got through almost all of the bean patches that needed picking and if the rains hold off or not i may get out again tomorrow to finish up what needs to be picked through.

the Yellow Eye beans being sometimes semi-runners i was trying to only pick the mostly dry pods but i also pulled up some other plants with plumpers on them so i'll have to sort those tonight or tomorrow.

 

[meadow]

I hesitate to give it a new name, but am equally hesitant to just call it "Cow" & risk contaminating the original if the two are not in fact identical. I wish this could be resolved, because IMO this is a spectacular cowpea that I would like to share widely.

I see that Glenn Drowns has a listing for "Pigott Family Heirloom" as well as "Pygott," with the disclaimer that Pygott is "Possibly the same as Pigott Family Heirloom but this was the name on the packet in Tom’s freezer."

Maybe someone would be willing to do a comparison grow-out to see if it actually does look and grow like Cow. If they do appear to be the same, a name could be assigned with a disclaimer saying that it is possibly the same as Cow.

 

[journey11]

One of the network beans I opted for this year was ‘Sallee Dunahoo Family White Greasy’.
As the plants grew they put on a wildly varied display of phenotypes, including a bush bean, long-podded McCaslan look-alike, small flat-podded type and a greasy cut-short. The crop was so diverse that I thought it would have been very odd indeed for any gardener to grow and save these together, without selection. So, what really happened to these beans?I had to find out…

I was able to find the name of the originator in a thread from 2013 - a user named MarshallSmyth had requested the beans from Janice Dunnahoo, née Sallee, c. 2010.
Fortunately, after a little detective work I managed to find Janice Dunnahoo’s contact information, and she responded! Here’s what I learned:

• The family bean is not a mix. It is exclusively a greasy cut-short with plump squarish white seeds.

• They were passed down matrilineally, by the Napier and Combs family, and have nothing to do with her father’s or husband’s families (Sallee & Dunnahoo). She comments that they should be named the Napier-Combs Family Greasy or something to that effect.

• The other types of bean in the ‘Sallee Dunahoo’ mixture are likely to be seeds from Amish markets that Janice picked up in Kentucky on the same trip where she collected the family greasy cut-short beans. But she didn’t mix them together before she sent them to MarshallSmyth, and is unsure how they ended up that way.

It is a weird turn of events and it illustrates that ‘Sallee Dunahoo Family White Greasy’ doesn’t really exist as a variety, named after families that never grew it and mixed up with other beans that were never grown with it.

Janice and her cousin in Kentucky have very generously offered me some pure seeds of their Napier-Combs family heirloom, from this year’s crop. @Bluejay77 Russ, I let her know that you would most likely be interested in some seeds, too. With your permission may I let her know your email address so she can contact you directly?

If the greasy cut-shorts that I grew this year are the same as the true family strain, then they really have an outstanding heirloom. It’s early and delicious. The green pods are so packed with beans that they burst apart as you pick them if you aren’t careful. Ripe pods beginning to dry by late August when many other greasies are just beginning to flower here.

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Below are some of the mature pods of multiple types discovered in the mix. The leftmost row of pods are the ones Janice claims to be closest to the family heirloom.

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Hi guys, I've been just lurking the bean thread, waiting for the big bean show to begin. I'm really impressed with this new bit of info on this bean as I had grown it a long time ago. I got mine from Marshall also. When I grew it, it was consistently the greasy type you found. Going to have to pull this one back out next year I think. I passed this one on to Mr. Best at his swap, goodness, I forget what year, it was back when they still had it on the farm. Now I am super embarrassed to find it was carrying the wrong name. Like playing the telephone game, I guess. Marshall was fond of experimenting with outcrosses, but I would say most likely the beans got jumbled when he lost his job and had to move. Probably 3 distinct beans you have there, but we'll never know what the others are. He grew a quite a lot. I think it's really awesome you found the family this bean belongs to. I will update the name on mine and keep this in my records. I have my hotel booked for the Berea swap and I hope to see many of you fine folks there!

 

[jbosmith]

@jbosmith those are really quite beautiful! Are the seeds burgundy too?

Whoa, I forgot to post a picture of the actual beans!

 

[flowerbug]

Hi guys, I've been just lurking the bean thread, waiting for the big bean show to begin. I'm really impressed with this new bit of info on this bean as I had grown it a long time ago. I got mine from Marshall also. When I grew it, it was consistently the greasy type you found. Going to have to pull this one back out next year I think. I passed this one on to Mr. Best at his swap, goodness, I forget what year, it was back when they still had it on the farm. Now I am super embarrassed to find it was carrying the wrong name. Like playing the telephone game, I guess. Marshall was fond of experimenting with outcrosses, but I would say most likely the beans got jumbled when he lost his job and had to move. Probably 3 distinct beans you have there, but we'll never know what the others are. He grew a quite a lot. I think it's really awesome you found the family this bean belongs to. I will update the name on mine and keep this in my records. I have my hotel booked for the Berea swap and I hope to see many of you fine folks there!

always glad to hear from you. welcome back, if even for a moment.

 

[flowerbug]

i got most of the plumpers sorted from the dry pods and have the dry pods spread out for a few days of drying before they get put into paper bags for longer term storage until i get them all shelled. i also then shelled the plumpers because it takes up a lot less space to dry those down than to have all those pods drying on flats. more to go tomorrow but it's quite a bit of what needed to get done.

i've been told that i'm cooking tomorrow so tex-mex chili it is. with beans and tomatoes, onions...

 

[Blue-Jay]

Some Random Photos From The Bean Pod Harvest.

Since early this month have been clipping bush beans off at the soil line and hanging them to dry. Then clip the pods as they become dry. The two raised beds are really getting cleaned out. Only four stragler varieties left to clip and hang. White Sun in the front center of the photo. In the background to the left Spotted Pheasant. Then 5 rows to the right Nebraska Sunset. Then the last green plants to the right of that Black Gem.

Two normal and three more oddly looking Jembo Polish Pods. So easy to shell with the thin easy open pod walls.

Lilaschecke Pod Pile. Another easy to hand shell bean with thin pod walls. My backyard pole snap bean grow out is yeilding some of the biggest volume and nicest looking seed of 7 snap beans I have had in a long time. Just beautiful seed. Clean pods from totally grass cliping mulch.

Jeminez pod pile. Yet another very easy to hand shell bean. I found one pod that was 11 inches long dry.

First picking of Weaver pods August 31, 2022

 

[Zeedman]

I see that Glenn Drowns has a listing for "Pigott Family Heirloom" as well as "Pygott," with the disclaimer that Pygott is "Possibly the same as Pigott Family Heirloom but this was the name on the packet in Tom’s freezer."

Maybe someone would be willing to do a comparison grow-out to see if it actually does look and grow like Cow. If they do appear to be the same, a name could be assigned with a disclaimer saying that it is possibly the same as Cow.

Maybe I'll call it "Black Angus" to keep the two strains separate, and point out that it is possibly similar/identical to "Cow".

Edit: Since cowpeas are just called "peas" in the South, I actually find "Cow" to be a hilarious name for a... cow pea. Someone had a good sense of humor. What's next, a bean named "Jim"?

 

[meadow]

Maybe I'll call it "Black Angus"

Oh, yes, please do!!! "Black Angus" is perfect!!