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

[heirloomgal]

I was so curious I took out the scale to see. I feel like I’ve been shelling these beans for a while. There is still some pods left out there so I think I’ll get close to 2 pounds for two of them, and 1 pound for the other. Yay!

Zwolse Paarse, about 5 ft of trellis [not sure the number of plants]

Bigarrada Gris Negre, 4 plants

Llaminera, 4 plants

 

[flowerbug]

I was so curious I took out the scale to see. I feel like I’ve been shelling these beans for a while. There is still some pods left out there so I think I’ll get close to 2 pounds for two of them, and 1 pound for the other. Yay!

Zwolse Paarse, about 5 ft of trellis [not sure the number of plants]
View attachment 60611


Bigarrada Gris Negre, 4 plantsView attachment 60613

Llaminera, 4 plants
View attachment 60612

so lovely to see!

 

[flowerbug]

picking (and weeding as i go) through the last of the dry bean patches that were ready again and had most of them done except for the last patch of Purple Dove beans that are not ready.

got a lot of them sorted and some were dry enough to go right into the bags. i topped up one large bag of Yellow Eye pods and weighed it at about 7-8lbs so the dry beans out of that should come in about 5lbs, plus i have another bag already 1/3 full i think so we should be good for these for another season of eating (i still have dry beans from previous harvests to finish eating). i also shelled out a partial flat of the worst dirty and rotten looking pods so that i would not have to bring those inside at all and got those looked at and set aside. not bad really considering what they looked like on the outside of the pods. often the last bean in those pods are starting to spoil from dragging in the dirt or laying on the ground too long, but the upper beans may be fine. i look at each one closely (i can't help it! they're purdy! ) to make sure it has no rot at all starting on it and i'll set them aside and look at them again in a few weeks to make sure before i put them in a separate container from the better looking pods. i don't want to risk any chance of spoiling a larger container...

Purple Dove beans i also have some bags of those set aside for eventual shelling. not sure of the weights of those but it won't be as high as the pods are a lot lighter and the beans are a lot smaller. still delicious.

Painted Pony are another large harvest bulk beans and those too are in bags already for the most part. i'll have a few more flats of pods from those to sort tomorrow or sometime Monday.

Red Ryder i think i have about a quarter to half a bag of pods. depends upon what else i have mixed in there and i do know there should be some because the few rows next to them were similar pods.

the rest of the miscellaneous 26 other selections that were planted are mostly going to be small bags or even just a handful of pods here or there. some i won't even have separated from other look alike pods until i get back to those flats for shelling. i've pulled a few pods apart to see how they did but mostly i've not had the time yet to get into them. perhaps tomorrow i'll be able to start on some of them.

i would say that so far those particular beans in that patch didn't do very well, between critters, hot weather, white rot in a few spots and just generally tough soil conditions that was not a great patch. i did pull some of the dry lima bean pods to make sure i did get some seeds from there before these next few rains, but i'm not sure how many of those remaining pods will finish. i have in the past had up to three pickings of lima beans from different gardens but this one was just not doing much in the heat and dry spell we had and i didn't want to overwater them in that patch because of how heavy the soil is in there... so... i may not get much to eat from those in terms of dry beans and perhaps some shellies too if i get a chance to pick again. we'll see about those...

oh, and as usual this patch is also going to tease me by giving me some Light Olive Eye beans that in the past have never become repeatable or stable to become their own variety. will this be yet another attempt at those? only the future will tell... i know i didn't plant anything like those or even close... hmmm...

 

[heirloomgal]

Weather network had a flashing red warning for frost yesterday, and a 2 degree temperature. Luckily, tonight is the last red warning and we go back into to low teens tomorrow for nightly lows. But I did have to cover some plants last night, which was not an easy feat in the dark, with a flashlight, when I got home from the kids swimming fitness at the pool. Losing daylight hours steadily it seems.
I don’t think there’s an earthly way to make things look any worse than this.
Covering poles (green tarp right) that are nearly 12 feet….not easy for a person with a fear of heights!

Propped a large foam insulation sheet against network bean Liscek and threw a blanket over top —which promptly collapsed the whole enterprise. But it’s easier to cover it sideways.

Filled the carport too. Can’t fit another thing in there and keep a good airflow, though I did manage a few more cages and poles after I took this photo.

Some of this evenings shelled beans.

Apple Creek from last year (I think, or possibly 2021) which I didn’t have great luck with, so I regrew a single plant this year in a large pot to increase my seed. I really liked the results, the seeds are bigger than last year too. Love the name of this bean.

Gardenglück bush bean. The strange thing is I have no recollection what this been looked like originally , I don’t remember blue!? But I planted so many different beans this year its not hard to forget and all the seeds are perfectly uniform from each plant so it’s true to type. I do certainly like the seeds though, snazzy for a snap bean.

 

[Blue-Jay]

We had in the next 4 days temperatures forcasted to be about 82 F (33C). That went away fast and they have dropped the temperature forcast into the mid to upper 70's (23-25 C). I'm really thinking about cutting vines at ground level tomorrow. October is not far away.

 

[Zeedman]

We had in the next 4 days temperatures forcasted to be about 82 F (33C). That went away fast and they have dropped the temperature forcast into the mid to upper 70's (23-25 C). I'm really thinking about cutting vines at ground level tomorrow. October is not far away.

My forecast had a similar drop since this morning. But still no 40's for lows in the 10-day forecast. And still no sign of the F word (by which I mean frost ).

 

[jbrobin09]

@heirloomgal I was just out harvesting my Graines de Cafe that I bought from you in the spring. (Down to zero tonight) I planted them a bit late so I wasn’t expecting a lot but we picked almost 7lbs of pods! Not all are mature enough, so I’ll try some as a shelly. But they survived a light frost without damage and they will ripen off in the pod indoors (I brought in a test bean last week).

I’m so excited about them-they are so beautiful!

 

[flowerbug]

bean physics:

- the first one is like potato chips, you're unlikely to stop at one.

- no matter how much space or time you have beans will multiply to fill them.

- you plant N, you are very lucky to get back less than 2xN.

- NxN is what it sometimes feels like even if you're still reading the previous note.

- you are not strange, you're just not hanging out with other gardeners enough.

 

[flowerbug]

i took some containers of beans with me today to the garden club meeting expecting to be sitting there myself so to make sure not to waste the time.

sorted them out and i think there's about 30 different containers in there, some of those containers have several selection possibilities in them. oy... there's no way i'm ever going to catch up on growing out all these to see which are interesting or not for further development. the good thing is that i have at least decided that browns and tans that are solid are not that interesting to me - all of those can be eaten.

not only do i have a lot of new ones to grow out but i also have a lot of older beans that need a refresh so i have to put at least 10 of those in my gardens someplace. with each one of those i plant i seem to find new selections when harvesting. so add +Z to above totals and then smack me with a wet noodle.

this all said a few of the Purple Dove out-crosses look really interesting and i am reminded that my camera should be getting some pictures taken somehow (magic beans?)...

 

[flowerbug]

i went out to putter around today and meant to get some more of the North Garden scraped and put up for winter, but first i checked on some beans to see if there were enough ready to pick. yes, they were so i got about a flat and a half of Yellow Eyes which finishes up almost all of those plants. there were enough pods in there that i could have left to finish on the plants but i wanted to get most of them pulled and ready for burying so they are drying in the sun now along with everything else i picked (i like to leave the pods outside for a day to let any bugs run away if they want to before i bring them in).

tomorrow i should have a chance to get the last Purple Dove patch checked and somewhat gone through but i think there's still a lot of pods that are not dried out all the way there. at least that is what i saw today at a quick glance.