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

[SPedigrees]

Before I knew it, I had put a seed order in with Solstice Seeds. They have several European varieties that sound too good to pass up, including Herrenbohnli beans, Red Verona cabbage, and many more.

Thanks for this link. I will add Solstice Seeds to my collection of seed sellers.

 

[Blue-Jay]

It was so nice to see @flowerbug at the Central Michigan Seed Swap in Midland, Michigan on Saturday February 25, 2023.

I picked up I think 3 beans at this swap. Somewhere, I don't know if it was on this thread or Facebook but people are looking for a stringless McCaslan bean. It seems like most of the McCaslan being circulated around these days has stringy pods. The original McCaslan is supposed to be stringless. Well There was a fellow that gave me a sample at the swap and he says his bean is stringless. Time will tell after it gets grown out.

flowerbug went home after the swap and a lot of us meet in down town Midland for dinner. Karen Golden from Highland was at the swap again as she was in 2019. She did a presentation in one of the meeting rooms. At dinner I sat right next to her. At the 2019 swap I stayed at her house and afterwards she showed me a huge pile of beans that Susan Simcox had from her brother Joseph The Botanical Explorer. I think Susan didn't want to contiue growing out all the beans that Joe brought home from over seas. Karen truely didn't want them all either. She told me to look through the beans and take what ever I wanted After about 15 minutes of me looking through the beans she told me to take them all. I didn't but perhaps I should have. At dinner this time around I told her about that time and she remembred that day. I asked her if she still had all those beans. She did and I asked if I could take the rest of them home. She texted Joeseph and he said it was ok for me to take them. So I stopped by Karens house the day after the swap and picked up the beans. A 25 Lb bag of beans.

When I get them home in April I will photo them all and do a germination test on all that have enough seeds to spare that way. I will post those photos here. I think we are going to find some new names in beans in this bag.

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm hoping for a little help finding some sources/references for European heritage beans particularly. Particularly German & Spanish varieties. So far I have found Bohnen Atlas, Deaflora, Zollinger, Tatgut.de, Heritage Seed Library UK & Irish Seed Savers but there are several on the list I'm going through that I can't find anywhere. I bet there are some good sites out there for Europe's heritage bean varieties but I haven't come up with much?

 

[NLbeangrower]

@heirloomgal maybe you can try belleepoquemeise.be? He is a bean collector

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal maybe you can try belleepoquemeise.be? He is a bean collector

Thank you @NLbeangrower ! I forgot about that site!

 

[flowerbug]

It was so nice to see @flowerbug at the Central Michigan Seed Swap in Midland, Michigan on Saturday February 25, 2023.
...

by 4pm i was wiped out, it took me a few days to recover. my lower back is not happy sitting or standing for long.

it was good to see you again and i sure wish i'd have been able to clone myself to go off and look for more things and to talk to people but it was a busy day.

in terms of accomplishing a goal of getting seeds to people who wanted them in the most efficient manner the seed swap is the best way for me to do it. no postage, no packaging (beyond the containers) and it only costs me the time and some gas in the car. one day and done for 100 or more samples given out.

sadly the trend of past seed swaps continues, not many people want the odd mutts or my newer beans, Tinker's Fire had a few people who wanted it. Lemon Slice, went to one person, Huey went to two people, Red Ryder (not my bean) had one delighted person who was happy to see it again. Sunrise and Sunset went to perhaps two people. nobody wanted Painted Pony or Appaloosa, Victoria Brown Eyes went to two people. Venda went to more people (perhaps a half dozen). ...

i can't remember what else seemed popular but Purple Dove was again by far the biggest sample of beans i gave out. perhaps 80 percent of the beans. of course i was giving it away to anyone who was looking for a fresh eating bean and for beginners who didn't know what they wanted. i warned most people about the JB's but Purple Doves keep going even if they get eaten. also mentioned replanting several times to keep a crop going. my samples were plentiful to keep people going, also mentioned leaving some pods to get dry beans and new seeds. i took a large bag full of seeds as a display item not expecting to use any for making up new samples and i also by chance packed some new containers and lids and i'm glad i did because i gave away or sold 2/3rds of that bag (almost a lb of beans)! that was what i was there to do. Purple Dove is probably now completely secure as a named variety (beyond me just growing it).

i have several relatives growing PD in different locations and will be sending out more seeds this coming week to a few more people. New Mexico, Florida, Southern Texas, many places in Michigan...

ok, back to replying to your comments about getting those JS beans. that's great news and perhaps some of those will work out!

i mentioned before that the seed box that @Zeedman gave me a few years ago was given to a person who didn't contacted me again, but she returned to this year's seed swap and it was funny to find out she lived in the neighboring small town (perhaps less than 10 miles from me), not sure of her exact location, but i hope eventually we can do some garden things and talk more beans in person some time. i also mentioned the garden club at the library so perhaps she'll show up. can only try. but to me she is a good chance for me to get some of my other beans out to someone else so we'll see how that turns out.

 

[Ladyreneer]

Looks like Solstice Seeds in Vermont is offering the Ugandan Bantu bean seeds. I am not familiar with this seed company, but it looks like an intriguing seed shop. https://solsticeseeds.org/product/bean-pole-dry-ugandan-bantu/

The Ugandan Bantus were my favourite bean to grow last year. So productive, and so much fun to play with once they were harvested. I gave each one a raspberry cane pruning to climb up on, and while they were ultimately a few feet taller than the raspberry canes it still worked pretty well. And if you are not able to purchase these seeds I could certainly send you some. I had a bumper crop.

Welcome @Ladyreneer !

I hope you stick around! The more beany people the better!

Heirlooms,
Thanks so much! I think I will take you up on your kind offer. I'm hoping to get a good selection of bean colors as i want my (very young) grandchildren to pick up an interest in gardening. I'm not sure how to directly message you on here yet but I could certainly PP you money for the seeds if you'll advise me.
~Renée

 

[Ladyreneer]

Hello @Ladyreneer,

Welcome to our bean group ! i don't think I ever noticed any posts by you before this year. I'm sure you will have a wonderful experience with this bean family.

Bluejay,
I think I may have been looking over this site late last year when I was looking for a particular bean that I wanted to try. I have a couple of acres to play with now but we just purchased some acreage out in the country. I plan on trying to grow many different types of beans.
One of my favorites is Uzice Speckled Wax bean. It was a magnificent grower here, a very, very good Pole Bean. I only have a few left because I was spreading some around to others. Has anybody here tried growing them?
I've been looking to try some more varieties, especially the Poles.
Can anybody recommend any good and pretty ones?

 

[Garrett]

I received some Uzice Speckled Wax beans in a seed swap this winter so I'll be growing them for the first time this summer. Glad to hear that they're good ones and so pretty too.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Bluejay,
I think I may have been looking over this site late last year when I was looking for a particular bean that I wanted to try. I have a couple of acres to play with now but we just purchased some acreage out in the country. I plan on trying to grow many different types of beans.
One of my favorites is Uzice Speckled Wax bean. It was a magnificent grower here, a very, very good Pole Bean. I only have a few left because I was spreading some around to others. Has anybody here tried growing them?
I've been looking to try some more varieties, especially the Poles.
Can anybody recommend any good and pretty ones?

What beans on my website did you think were pretty? If I read your post correctly you are looking for recommendations for beans that are good but also pretty. I don't think any beans I have are unproductive it's just some are more productive than others.