2024 Little Easy Bean Network - Growing Heirloom Beans Of Today And Tomorrow

[Decoy1]

Bluejay 77: What I am curious about what does your new seed look like now that you have grown it out.

The photo of Freckles which I posted above (DF2023) is this year’s grow out. If my parcel gets through to you, it will have that seed in it.

If it doesn’t get through, I’ll grow it again next year, all being well, and send another batch (with no deadline!)

 

[Triffid]

@Decoy1
I looked at the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center website and it also shows Old Joe Clark seeds in various shades. I guess this bean is like that. Were all the ripe pods red?

When I grew them in 2022 the pods were all red when ripe.

 

[heirloomgal]

Got all my bean growing tag stakes cleaned, organized and re-labeled for 2024 varieties. That felt pretty great. 😊

I've got the line up for 2024 mostly accounted for, now if only I knew just how many spaces for poles I really do have now that I've bumped off potatoes, fruit, okra & chufa nuts and possibly soybeans. Often I've felt guilt for growing the bean poles about 4 feet apart, feeling like that might not be enough air flow until this last while that I'm seeing some seed websites showing these enormous walls of beans, like clothelines, for quite long distances. I figure if they're getting success with these long trellis's like that, I might not be the counterfeit I think I am doing it how I do.

Also sent off my first SoDC 2024 seed request package today, which was kinda special. Nice to see the big love vibes poured onto @Bluejay77 's and @Artorius's beans. A very nice bean collector lady, she knows you @Zeedman as she mentioned you in an email. Small 🫘 world!

 

[Ladyreneer]

@heirloomgal, What is SoDC? I'm intrigued. 🤔
@Bluejay77, @Artorius, and @Zeedman always have beautiful bean pictures, as do you.

@flowerbug very generously shared some of her bean collection with me! I will photograph them and add them as soon as I'm able. I'm kind of overwhelmed by the generosity and the beauty of the beans. 😍

 

[flowerbug]

@heirloomgal, What is SoDC? I'm intrigued. 🤔
@Bluejay77, @Artorius, and @Zeedman always have beautiful bean pictures, as do you.

they all take very nice pictures.

@flowerbug very generously shared some of her bean collection with me! I will photograph them and add them as soon as I'm able. I'm kind of overwhelmed by the generosity and the beauty of the beans. 😍

i'm a "he" not a "her", but it's ok - i'm used to that happening.

i didn't and don't expect you to take pictures of each bean seperately unless you really want to do that - that would be quite a large project.

the half white mix i sent i didn't even keep track of how many containers i took samples from but i think it was at least 20 and probably closer to 30. none of them are named beans other than me calling them a half white and they all are likely related to each other in some way. some of them are easy to tell apart from the others.

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal, What is SoDC? I'm intrigued. 🤔
@Bluejay77, @Artorius, and @Zeedman always have beautiful bean pictures, as do you.

@flowerbug very generously shared some of her bean collection with me! I will photograph them and add them as soon as I'm able. I'm kind of overwhelmed by the generosity and the beauty of the beans. 😍

It's the national seed exchange. It doesn't officially open until Jan. 8th, but some of the more passionate gardeners have already sent me seed requests, lol. It's so cute. These are some of my favorite seed requesters because they are so into gardening. I just can't tell them to wait. 🤣 So I mailed off a package to the first early bird yesterday. I list my seed collection on there and the beans I've received from @Bluejay77 and @Artorius are very popular seed requests. Canada actually has pretty limitied seed offerings (esp compared to the US), and a lot of the vendors offer the same varieties. It's great to be able to widen the opportunities a little for gardeners.

 

[heirloomgal]

I think I may have discovered at least one viable and relatively simple method of getting 'bean payments' done internationally (Moneygrams), but in the meanwhile my payment to Belgium is STILL in transit from Dec 12. Thank goodness it's insured this time, so if it's intercepted again they will reimburse me. It appears from the tracking site to have passed customs and is 'in transit to the delivery office' - that sounds like a positive development. 🤞

 

[Boilergardener]

Hello everyone and hello 2024 ! We are now into our 12th season of this thread with great growers and contributors. Thank you all who have become part of our history and those who grace our pages with their current contributions. I think we all have so much enjoyment and pleasure in what we all do and share here.

Yes we grow the heirlooms of today and tomorrow. The members here do come up with new beans that will one day possibly become accepted varieties. Think of all the bean varieties that exist today. The USDA seed bank in Washington has over 15,000 accessions. Seed Savers Exchange with over 7,000 accessions. The country of Columbia with over 35,000 accessons. There are seed banks in a number of places around the world. Could there be 100,000 bean varieties in all the seed banks combined. Well maybe, and who knows how many kinds there are that have never become part of a seed bank. Every year we all run into more beans we have never seen before.

When humans began domesticating the bean there were not all these beans in existence 7,000 years ago. I bought a book on bean collecting about 8 years ago. The book was not about collecting the way we do it today by seeing new varieties online somewhere or by becoming members of organizations like Seed Savers Exchange or Seeds of Diversity Canada. This book was about going into the wild and collecting undomesticated beans. This book stated that today there are about 50 known varieties in the wild. The humans of many millenia ago probably had about the same number of varieties to work with. So where did all these thousands of beans come from. It had to be from crosses of beans that were domesticated creating new gene combinations over and over until today we have this grand profusion of diversity in beans. So yes we grow the heirlooms of today and probably tomorrow also.

Each year I have this priority list of beans that could be grown. Just a guide in case someone has a hard time deciding what they might like to try to grow. The 2023 list got worked over quite well. I have so many of the beans that are in my collection listed now on my website that this list will not be as long.

1. Barksdale - Pole wax. From Annette Barley of Nanaimo, BC.
2. Blue Coco - Only one sample of 12 beans. Could be split into two 6's.
3. Blue Spitball - Pole with small blue gray seed and black eye ring. Don't know if it's a dry bean or snap.
4. Cold Creek - Black and white Bush dry.
5. Freckles - Bush Dry
6. Fowler Pole - Pole Snap bean
7. Joe Bean - Pole Snap
8. Maria Amazilitei - Italian Pole Snap Bea
9. Menega - A Simcox collected bean from Columbia. Don't know if it's a pole or bush growth.
10. Old Joe Clark - Appalachian heirloom that produces very early yields of beautiful pink pods. Semi Runner
11. Rose D' Eyragues - Bush horticultural type that came from a market in France.
12. Serrano - 7 seeds in the sample

Did the "Frost" bean ever get resurrected? I remember not one seed germinated for me 2 years ago.

I am looking to grow a few more English/Celtic Heirloom beans as I've had such success with others from there, didn't know if anyone in here had some suggestions. I've liked Early Warwick, brightstone, and really like major cooks and George's beans for pole type. Maybe the "pea bean" that looks almost identical to frost or others? The red and white pattern

 

[Artorius]

@Boilergardener
I will be growing Frost again this year. I have some seeds from 2022, they are poorly colored, but they are germinating. Last year all the plants died. I am stubborn and I will find a way to collect seeds that satisfy me.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Did the "Frost" bean ever get resurrected? I remember not one seed germinated for me 2 years ago.

I am looking to grow a few more English/Celtic Heirloom beans as I've had such success with others from there, didn't know if anyone in here had some suggestions. I've liked Early Warwick, brightstone, and really like major cooks and George's beans for pole type. Maybe the "pea bean" that looks almost identical to frost or others? The red and white pattern

It could be arranged for lyou to grow Early Warwick, George's Bean, and the Pea Bean Turkey. If you would lilke to grow a full pint jar of Early Warwick and weed out all the small, stained, mishappened seed, and seed with the seed coats not fully formed. I would pay you $30.00 plus postage to mail those back to me. The other two beans you could just send back the normal 60 I ask for.