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

[ruralmamma]

My 8y/o daughter insisted on being the one to open the box. Not sure which of us is more excited for spring.

My daughter just turned 11 and loves playing with and sorting beans. This will be the first year in which she'll have her very own bed and a few bean varieties to grow. I've always been careful not to force gardening upon her, but let her develop an interest on her own as I did as a child. We're so excited for this year too!

 

[flowerbug]

My daughter just turned 11 and loves playing with and sorting beans. This will be the first year in which she'll have her very own bed and a few bean varieties to grow. I've always been careful not to force gardening upon her, but let her develop an interest on her own as I did as a child. We're so excited for this year too!

i wish it were easier for people to get around.

i have five full quarts of dry beans that i'll be eating that she'd probably have fun going through. they're a mix of whatever i've had extra in the collection or old beans i won't grow again. there's probably a bunch of different varieties in there depending upon how they are sorted. since i tend to select by colors and shapes i can have a lot of different browns or other colors along with different shapes.

some of them are ones i could name and others will just be generic eating beans because i don't need yet more browns or whatever and i can't grow them all.

i still haven't really gone through my entire collection yet to get some weeded out so i'd also have those too eventually.

 

[ruralmamma]

We had a few warm days and lots of garden prep going on. Still working on the new/updated bean trellis in my head and trying to determine the best way to implement it. Have moved two small beds in the area and still have one to go. Haven't really decided what will be planted where except that the Avalon beans will have a dedicated bed to themselves in an attempt to get some true-to-type seed.

I am planning on giving limas a try again as I've only been somewhat successful with those and was totally unaware of how easily they cross, so adding that to my notes and will keep the two varieties I'm planting in different gardens.

Also reading about runner beans and insect activity and wondering how far away to plant them to avoid cross-pollination? One of my daughter's beds will likely be for pollinators and is currently situated about 10' away from my bean arch. Is that too close? In all likelihood I'll be planting a crop strictly for eating and preserving on that arch, so cross-pollination shouldn't be much of an issue, but what about the beans a bit farther away? Maybe I'm just worrying too much.

 

[ruralmamma]

i wish it were easier for people to get around.

i have five full quarts of dry beans that i'll be eating that she'd probably have fun going through. they're a mix of whatever i've had extra in the collection or old beans i won't grow again. there's probably a bunch of different varieties in there depending upon how they are sorted. since i tend to select by colors and shapes i can have a lot of different browns or other colors along with different shapes.

some of them are ones i could name and others will just be generic eating beans because i don't need yet more browns or whatever and i can't grow them all.

i still haven't really gone through my entire collection yet to get some weeded out so i'd also have those too eventually.

She had so much fun helping me sort the beans you sent last year and we're planning to grow quite a few of them this year.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 32​

Karachaganak - Semi Runner Dry. Discovered in one of the Will Bonsall packets by our Little Easy Bean Network grower Ridgerunner in 2016 and named by him. The bean is stable. I can't vouch for it's productivity but I like it for it's seed color and pattern. The seed size and shape is different than the bush version. Larger and longer.

Kigali - Pole Dry. This is one of the stash of Simcox beans I have in the freezer. I pulled it out to grow this year. It had no name but the notation on the seed packet said Rwanda on the way to Tanzania. Well I'm making an assumtion but it could be true. There is a big market in Kigali the capital city of Rwanda. Joe could have been there on his way to Tanzania after visiting the big market there. So I decided to give this unnamed bean that name.


Karachaganak - Semi Runner Dry.........................Kigali - Pole Dry

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 33​

Kitoba - Pole Dry. I think this is a very pretty bean. I love the color. Very productive bean from Kenya. I acquired the bean in July of 2017 being sent to me by the young man in Kentucky who bred the bean Fountain Pitts Allen. Then I grew the bean for the first time in 2018. For all of this beans virtue, it doesn't seem to get much notice.

Kretser Soldier - Bush Dry. This bean was traded in the early days of Seed Savers Exchange. I had also grown it then. I had reacquired this bean from the Sandhill Preservation Center in 2016. Glen Drowns owner of Sandhill was also an early Seed Saver Exchange member when he was in high school. About as productive as many other soldier beans. I always liked the little splashes of dark blue in it's light red eye figure. I have never found any history of this bean or where it comes from. Perhaps one day I will do some heavy reading of all my early Seed Saver Exchange yearbooks which are very light and thin with so few members back in the early 1980's. Maybe I will find the original lister in one of those yearbooks.


Kitoba - Pole Dry..............................................Kretser Soldier - Bush Dry

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 33​

Kroatische - Pole Dry. I like the pattern on this bean. There are some other European beans with this similar pattern in various colors. This bean being from Croatia. This bean struggled in my 2025 summer but produced a small amount of nice beans. I'm sure it maybe very productive. My source, I will use this persons tag line which I love very much. Gratefully received from the collection of @heirloomgal.

Lavender Swirl - Pole Dry. This bean might actually be more of a semi runner it doesn't seem to climb very high. I acquired this bean at the 2020 Central Indiana Seed Swap. Pam Quackenbush from Hudson, Michigan had a table near mine at that swap and she offered it to me. I believe it's one of the Joseph Simcox beans and I have a feeling it's also named by him. In all my years of bean collecting I have never come across the word swirl in a beans name. It seemed like a Joe idea for sure. I have no idea what is this beans origin. Since I have offered this bean it gets a lot of attention and I mean a lot. I think the speckles look rather gray to me.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 33​

Letcher County Fall - Pole Dry. Another productive Appalachian bean from Letcher County Kentucky. Quite rounded beans about the size of a Navy bean. I acquired the bean as part of a purchase I had made from the Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm in Winchester, Ohio for someone in Italy. After I had finalized the order I was contacted by the Plant Farm that I had a free bean coming. So I had chosen this one and glad I did. It produces a nice quality of seed. If you go to the Plant Farms website now you won't find this bean.

Liscek - Pole Dry. This a very lovely seed and the vines always produce very well and a great quality of seed in less than the best conditions or growing season. This bean just doesn't seem to give in to anything. I had acquired this Slovenian bean from a grower in Willich, Germany in December 2019 as a trade for a total of six bean varieties. After I received the package and saw this bean It was definitely going on my grow out list for 2020.


Letcher Country Fall - Pole Dry..........................Liscek - Pole Dry