2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[Blue-Jay]

@Blue-Jay I need to mail you my September Blue beans and will do that very soon. Fall was crazy busy and some of my September Blues had a drying issue. I wanted to make sure these were fully dry before sending. I am happy to grow them out again this year.

I'd also love to give one of the Italian varieties a try - Purgatorio.

Hi @heartsong111,

email me with what you would like to grow out this coming summer (upadam@comcast.net). If you don't have enough of the September Blue just hang on to them and grow them again. September Blue is a bean still a work in progress.

I've got Purgatorio but I just noticed I don't have it listed on the website. Will have to take care of that sometime.

 

[Artorius]

Welcome everyone in the new year!

This year I will only have those network beans that have not been successfully grown so far. I will not order new ones because I don't know when I will be able to send anything to the US. Only correspondence and documents can be sent from Poland. @Blue-Jay, I hope I don't have to wait another three years to send you last year's returns.

This weekend I will start sorting the 2025 bean seeds. I will probably take a few photos too so I have something to show here.

Happy New Year!

 

[Artorius]

@Artorius,

Your package is in the mail on it's way to your friend in Paris. Two surprise packets are in the package from flowerbug. Also a surprise bean from me. It's something I'm trying to stabalize. I think it's neat looking. Hope you have fun with it. I have already given it a name. I also added a bush lima that I had sitting in my freezer that I got from a fellow in Iowa who had a large pole lima collection, He would sometime breed limas. He must have sent this bean to me about 6 years ago. I thought it would surely be a pole lima but it wound up being a bush. I usually don't care for bush limas but this one is colored differently than all the commercial bush limas that have a light green tint to them. I know I will grow this one more.

@Blue-Jay, @flowerbug, thank you very much!

 

[Blue-Jay]

This year I will only have those network beans that have not been successfully grown so far. I will not order new ones because I don't know when I will be able to send anything to the US. Only correspondence and documents can be sent from Poland. @Blue-Jay, I hope I don't have to wait another three years to send you last year's returns.

What is the problem with being able to mail package from Europe to countries overseas? I got a message from a Network grower in France who said I will mail the return pakage when things return to normal. So why are things now abnormal. Also a Network in grower Germany who usually has their seeds mailed back long before now. This must be affecting all the EU countries.

 

[Artorius]

@Blue-Jay
This seems to be due to the sudden change in US customs regulations. This caused chaos and confusion among postal services in Europe because no one was prepared. Shipments are being suspended until the US government develops clear and precise guidelines.

For example, I can still send parcels to Canada without any problem.

 

[Million Bells]

Next up, Blue Shackamaxon. Very prolific and nicely timed. I checked a few early pods and saw blue, but those didn't dry down once I opened them. I still need to make them up and see how the color is in the pot.

PA Dutch Cherry Pole was a disappointment. I had a few early pods, but they were attacked by green stink bugs. A lot of beans got sorted out because they just didn't look like something I wanted to eat. I don't know if it was just a bad year or there are too many pests for this variety.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I'm still in the process of sorting and packaging 2025's seed crop for the freezer. When I'm done. I will do my 2025 bean show on this years 2026 thread. I need a new camera. I've taken over a hundred photos of beans with my phones camera. They are not terrible photos but still think in my opinion the phots are not as good as a digital hand held camera. All of my bean photos have been taken with my 2003 version of a Canon Powershot G3 4 MP camera. I wore out the original and have been buying used ones on Ebay for about 10 years because I have the software installed on one of my computers that runs Windows XP. Canon Powershot G3's are mostly now just junk on Ebay. For parts only. Looks like it's time to move on to new gear.