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

[Jack Holloway]

Yes, it's sad @BeanieQueen but nearly all Canadian seed companies have stopped shipping to both the US and Europe. I find that tragic. There were some changes to the US seed customs policy in the last few years which make it impossible to get certain kinds of seeds across anymore, even from Canada - peppers and tomatoes for sure. Thank goodness @Bluejay77 has an import permit for small lots of seeds! And the EU seems to have put a blockade in place as well, so Canadian seed companies are now getting too high a percentage of their seed parcels returned. I can only imagine how frustrating that might be. Maybe you know someone in England that could help you? As far as I know, that is the one place in Europe still free to accept seeds.

Not sure how they stop people from crossing the border with small amounts of seeds. Especially commuters. There used to be a ban on bees coming from Canada into the US. Like they couldn't just fly across the border.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Not sure how they stop people from crossing the border with small amounts of seeds. Especially commuters. There used to be a ban on bees coming from Canada into the US. Like they couldn't just fly across the border.

By now, I suspect they may use trained dogs. If you can train a dog to sniff out drugs (or cancer), you can probably train it to bark when it catches the smell of food from luggage, or organic matter (though I admit most seeds don't have much of a smell.)

With the mail, part of the problem is that, in order that THEY don't get in trouble for misrepresenting things to their customs, a lot of smaller seed sellers label the seeds AS seeds right on the customs form on the front. Even the most lazy customs official is going to check a package that openly declares its contents are contraband.

Its sort of like the flipside of all of the information I give on how to find things by looking in the bulk imported products. Everything I have found has sort of got in via a sort of loophole or leak in the system, and part of the US customs and USDA's job is to plug those leaks. Every time I mention finding something, I have no way of knowing if some official is signing on and reading what I wrote to get info on where things are getting in so they can stop them. And the argument "You had your chance to catch this, so I can't be faulted for taking advantage of the fact you didn't" doesn't really hold a lot of legal weight. Just as the fact that some cop should have stopped some drugs getting into the country doesn't absolve the person who actually buys and takes those drugs in the eyes of the law, the government could make a pretty robust case that the fact that they failed to catch a package of seeds coming in does not mean they can't later arrest whoever bought them.

As I have mentioned, one of the reasons I HAVEN'T yet applied for a small seed importers permit is that it occurs to me that the government could offer those only to compile a list of those persons who would WANT to import exotic seeds and plants, and therefore make a hit list of who to raid and arrest. The easiest way to uphold the law is to make people too afraid to even THINK of breaking it. Authority never LIKES independent thinkers, and will do pretty much anything to squash them out. A government of the sheeple, by the sheeple and for the sheeple is very easy to rule smoothy.

 

[heirloomgal]

Not sure how they stop people from crossing the border with small amounts of seeds. Especially commuters. There used to be a ban on bees coming from Canada into the US. Like they couldn't just fly across the border.

I don't know about seeds carried on someone's person, people probably still slide them in their sock and walk it through. The mail is more what I refer to here. Bees, yeah, they probably don't take customs too seriously. lol

A little off topic but...interestingly, I took my kids last year to a facility dedicated to educating people about how problematic exotic pets are. It's more or less a rescue that takes in confiscated animals, often of the dangerous variety. I was shocked to see they had - not terribly far from where I live relatively speaking - an alligator, crocodile, several huge pythons (20 feet long), African porcupine, monitor lizards the size of alligators, etc. They were all smuggled in, via air of course, the reptiles sometimes in a bottle of Pepsi or other such beverage, that they brought on board. Crazy!

 

[Jack Holloway]

I don't know about seeds carried on someone's person, people probably still slide them in their sock and walk it through. The mail is more what I refer to here. Bees, yeah, they probably don't take customs too seriously. lol

A little off topic but...interestingly, I took my kids last year to a facility dedicated to educating people about how problematic exotic pets are. It's more or less a rescue that takes in confiscated animals, often of the dangerous variety. I was shocked to see they had - not terribly far from where I live relatively speaking - an alligator, crocodile, several huge pythons (20 feet long), African porcupine, monitor lizards the size of alligators, etc. They were all smuggled in, via air of course, the reptiles sometimes in a bottle of Pepsi or other such beverage, that they brought on board. Crazy!

Some friends bring back homemade Slivovitz from Slovenia. They declare it on the custom forms. The custom agents don't want to bother with filling out all the forms for taxing a couple of liters of booze, so they just wave them through. Guess it isn't illegal to bring back home distilled booze from outside the US, which surprised me. Just be sure to declare it.

Back in the 1980s a guest speaker at a cactus and other succulents club talked about bringing cactus back from Mexico. Legally. What he shouldn't have mentioned was his smuggling back a gila monster. There was an undercover federal agent in the audience. He got in big trouble for that. I've heard that some federal agents monitor gardening boards to find out how people are bringing in seeds from outside the US. Of course, only 5% of what comes in gets inspected (last I had read).

 

[meadow]

There was a chicken breeder here that used to buy duck eggs from my children (that he'd partially incubate and sell as balut)... anyway, he had a friend that was an airline pilot and this friend would bring him hatching eggs from Germany. He was an older fellow, originally from Germany, and he had spectacular birds. [at least this is what he said was the source of his foundation stock]

 

[Branching Out]

Based on that, I'd actually take a sort of middle ground on what is and is not Bantu*.

I too purchased Ugandan Bantu beans from Salt Spring Seeds in 2022, and as someone brand new to dry beans they were a huge source of joy for me this past summer. From everything you are all saying I now realize that I should have photographed the beans before I planted them, as a point of reference. I did not do this, however I did take photos of them once harvested-- because I LOVE them.

 

[meadow]

omg, y'all are killin' me with yer purty beans!

 

[heirloomgal]

I too purchased Ugandan Bantu beans from Salt Spring Seeds in 2022, and as someone brand new to dry beans they were a huge source of joy for me this past summer. From everything you are all saying I now realize that I should have photographed the beans before I planted them, as a point of reference. I did not do this, however I did take photos of them once harvested-- because I LOVE them.

Aha! I see one of the speckled ones in there! One of these days I need to replant Ugandan Bantu and make a note of the color and shape of each and every single seed I plant and keep track to see if they can come true, or if it's always a coin toss. Those purple ones are sooo pretty! A fellow on the seed exchange is offering a pole version of Ugandan that is expressing mostly in purple shades (he didn't get his from SSS) so I picked it up from him.

 

[meadow]

Aha! I see one of the speckled ones in there! One of these days I need to replant Ugandan Bantu and make a note of the color and shape of each and every single seed I plant and keep track to see if they can come true, or if it's always a coin toss. Those purple ones are sooo pretty! A fellow on the seed exchange is offering a pole version of Ugandan that is expressing mostly in purple shades (he didn't get his from SSS) so I picked it up from him.

Or make a different row (or pole?) for each color you're planting.

Btw, I like your new green cup. It sets the beans off so nicely!

 

[heirloomgal]

Great idea @meadow ! I hadn't thought of that!