2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

[Blue-Jay]

I'm probably going to keep things seasonal just like you, opening up for only a period of time early in the year.

Actually I ship beans the year round except for February and March when I'm in Florida. However I do collect orders for those months and fill them starting in April. I shipped a package of beans yesterday to someone in Brazil. Some people who want beans sometimes start ordering now to collect beans they want for the next coming growing season.

 

[Zeedman]

The chipmunks climb the plants, and don't miss a single pod. At the rate they are working, I might be forced to harvest all of the remaining soybeans as edamame - that, or watch it all disappear. And this looked like it was going to be a decent soybean year. 😥 I was on the verge of giving up the rural plot; but I unless I'm able to kill the chipmunks, I may no longer be able to grow soybeans at home.

I was initially unable to either trap or poison the chipmunks; they were smart enough to eat the fruit but not the bait, and knew how to pull the apricots out of the traps without tripping them. So I thought I would make it harder to pull the fruit out of the trap, by gluing it into the bait cup with honey & allowing the honey to dry in the sun before placing the traps. I caught one chipmunk & 2 large mice the first night. I hate to rejoice in killing something, and would have preferred to share a little, had the losses not been so severe. But chippies are not live & let live, and too persistent to be driven away; so they left me no alternative.

Now if I was able to trap one of the turkeys, that might actually be legitimate cause of celebration... just not legally legitimate.

 

[Artorius]

I was fishing for Tunny today

 

[Artorius]

true. sad though to not have some seeds from certain plants.

do you think it was heat stress/drought that got them or disease?

@flowerbug
I'm sure it's some kind of disease, probably phytophthora. The stems were brown inside. This may have been due to the quite intense rains that fell throughout the week. The soil was soaked like a sponge. It appears that some varieties are more resistant to it than others.

 

[Zeedman]

In an otherwise bad bean year, "Uzice Speckled Wax" has done amazingly well. I already have 2 pounds of seed, so am harvesting the remaining pods as shellies. This is a good, highly productive wax bean; but if let go, it also doubles as a shelly. The shellies have outstanding flavor, thin tender skin, are colorful, and are fairly large. I adjusted the photo size to reflect the actual bean size, at least on my computer screen. Really delicious, I prefer the shellies to the snaps.

"Uzice Speckled Wax" cooked shellies.

 

[heirloomgal]

Actually I ship beans the year round except for February and March when I'm in Florida. However I do collect orders for those months and fill them starting in April. I shipped a package of beans yesterday to someone in Brazil. Some people who want beans sometimes start ordering now to collect beans they want for the next coming growing season.

I didn't realize that you took orders year round, that must keep you quite busy? I know when I was filling seed requests with Seeds of Diversity in May of this year I found it really difficult because I was so busy with the garden outside at that time too.

 

[heirloomgal]

Today’s goodies.

Sometimes I forget what the beans look like after I plant them, and it’s only once I crack open pods in fall that I remember. I nearly fell on my chin when I opened network bean Lucie today! Such a gorgeous bean!

Fountain Pitts Allen is a nice blue/purplish one too!

Bay of Fundy Amethyst

A few Sacre Bleu pods were dry too.

 

[flowerbug]

it was so nice to be able to get outside and pick some dry beans at last. seven box flats full of mostly Yellow Eye, Painted Pony and some of the Adzuki's along with a few other's that were along the way or flopped around from a neighboring row. in the Yellow Eye patch i found a possible out cross with a Peregion selection so it is interesting to see how they compare to the other's i've already found. not sure if they are edible. i should see tomorrow if i can find a younger bean to sample on that plant - i may have left a few of the really young green pods on there... these are a later bean than i'd really like but if they are edible i would grow them to eat and then hope they eventually cross with any of my earlier beans.

in order to have flats to put pods in i was able to get bags filled full of pods that were well dried so i'm not worried about them spoiling before i can get them shelled. i'm trying not to pick many baby sitting pods that will need to be watched as they dry down so they don't rot. the sunshine will be out again for a few more days i think so i will put them out in the sun to get good and dried - that goes a lot quicker than having them inside but with these cool nights we've been having Mom has wanted the heat on so that really crisped things up that were sort of soggy (including me i think )...

 

[flowerbug]

I was initially unable to either trap or poison the chipmunks; they were smart enough to eat the fruit but not the bait, and knew how to pull the apricots out of the traps without tripping them. So I thought I would make it harder to pull the fruit out of the trap, by gluing it into the bait cup with honey & allowing the honey to dry in the sun before placing the traps. I caught one chipmunk & 2 large mice the first night. I hate to rejoice in killing something, and would have preferred to share a little, had the losses not been so severe. But chippies are not live & let live, and too persistent to be driven away; so they left me no alternative.

i had much better luck with the trip pan (old version mouse and rat traps) when i started putting most of the bait on the underside of the trip pan so that the critters would usually set the trap off.

but the really funny thing this past season was when i found out where the chipmunks were regularly running so i put two rat traps without any bait at all there and they ran over the traps and they'd usually get caught. i trapped about four of them that ways. alas, there's so many around they're all over the place. i'd need a wall of rat traps or really good fences to keep them out...

as for the soybeans if i can get a crop to fill pods i will pick them when fully developed and bring them in to finish drying because otherwise the chippies do seem to get them.

 

[heirloomgal]

Spent another couple hours out there this afternoon looking for and collecting dried pods. Things seem to be drying up faster this season, more heat units I think. It’s a lovely, enjoyable time of year, nice to work outside with the sun and breezes even if you need a light jacket.

So many of this years beans are big! I didn’t pick them for that specifically, just a funny coincidence. I’m just glad so many have dried down since bigger beans can be the last ones to finish in my garden.

Altmarker (2 dots over the A...) Very nice seed variety, and it's a snap bean too even though it's so nice looking.

Lastochka

Bird Egg Blue 🪺
Been a few years since I grew this one. It's nice to have fresh seeds in hand to admire again.

Fagiola di Angelo Imperia(or something close to that, can't remember it without looking at the tag) For such a large bean it's drying down in great time, over 1/2 the pods are crackle dry.

Princess Rose
First time ever growing this bean. I love the pink!

*Sloot* 🙊

Found a cross in network bean Hemelvaartboontje. Sort of a black marble, it's a pretty one for sure.

Better pic of network bean Lucie. It can look a blackish purple in photos, but it really is more of a true purple. Gosh, what a bean. All the seeds are so well formed, no culls at all so far.

The drying room is doing lots of drying right now. Haha, seed savers really know how to junk up a space. And this is after I cleaned up a little in here.