2016 Little Easy Bean Network - Gardeners Keeping Heirloom Beans From Extinction

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #37​

This is a pole lima "Florida Speckled" that I grew in 2016. It's an old variety being introduced by seed companies during the 1840's, but it is very likely much older than that. The beans popularity comes and goes from time to time. It has been a very commerical variety for the last 50 years. It goes by many names such as Florida Speckled Butter Bean, Florida Butter, Old Florida Pole, Speckled Beauty, Speckled Pole Lima, and Spotted Butter to name most of them. It is a good variety for the south doing very well in heat and humidity, but it also grows very well for me in northern Illinois.

"Florida Speckled"

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #38​

Three years ago I got this bean "Fort Portal Jade" from a fellow in the Netherlands. It was the first green seeded bean I had ever seen. It is a semi runner that will climb on a support if provided. It comes from Uganda. I grew almost 2 pounds of the seed in 2015, but this years grow out only gave me 170 seeds. The seed is very round and if you are hand shelling them on a hard table they roll all over the place. Someday I'll grow a large amount of these again and find out what they are like as a food bean.

"Fort Portal Jade"

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 I grew these a few years back when Richter's Seed Zoo offered them. I had never seen a bean seed this color and curiosity got the better of me . Some of the seed I harvested from the sample I grew were quite a dark green as you can see in this picture.

Curiosity satisfied I passed these on to someone else, I don't as a rule grow many bush varieties, lack of space. Maybe that's a good thing?

NOTE: Next time you shell round seed do it inside a box, ask me why I say this? I'm still finding Blue Greasy Grits in the oddest places two years later .
Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @aftermidnight, I do shell my beans inside of a regtangular Tupperware container. Joseph Simcox was the person who arranged a shipment of Fort Portal Jade from Uganda to Richters back in the day when they sold the bean. So looks as if you may have grown this bean once already. Yours seem so variable in size and color.

Baker Creek in Missouri now sells Fort Portal Jade in their catalog. I supplied them this year with a half pound of seed to get a good start on them. I also supplied the Rare Vegetable Seed Consortium with a half pound of them also. Still don't see the bean in their online bean listings. Perhaps next year.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@journey11,

Your seed returns came in the mail Saturday. They are just so beautiful. Many, many thank you's. Love your named beans from the WB-PKT numbered packets. Thought I would tell you a little about the original beans that the off type seed you grew this summer came from.

Your "Gopher" and "Cleopatra". The mother bean was a pole bean called "Roark". It is a snap bean that has seed the looks exactly like a Pinto.

"Roark"

Your "Avalon" and "Pixie" came from "Annelino di Trento" a bush bean. Below is a photo of it's seeds.

"Annelino di Trento"

Your last named bean "Folsom Ridge" seeds came from a bush bean called "Wybulsummer Suppenbohne". Below is the image of that bean. What is amazing is that the original seed you grew was from 2006. That was your miracle baby bean of 2016 for sure I think. The mother beans name sounds like it could be a German variety.

"Wybulsummer Suppenbohne"

 

[journey11]

Wow, thanks for that info, Russ. I'll put that in my file. Perhaps Avalon will look very much like the parent seed as it darkens with age. There were a few reversed seed coats in the mix too, but I set them aside.

Folsom looks very similar too, but just a bit more elongated.

I'm glad they arrived safely. Thanks for letting me participate. We really had fun with all the variety this year.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #39​

This bean is called "Fountain Pitts Allen". Pole growth. It's an original bean bred by a young 20 year old fellow who is currently studying plant breeding at a college near where he lives in Kentucky. The bean has been around about two years. I grew it this summer and it didn't throw off any off types.

"Fountain Pitts Allen"

​

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #40​

This is a pole snap bean called "Fowler Pole". A Seed Savers Exchange member from Michigan by the name of Jeff Fleming sent it to me about 4 years ago, but I didn't grow it. It was an outcross somehow related to the Fowler bush which is not bothered a lot by Japanese beetles. He asked me how I was coming with it in selecting it for stablity and told him I didn't grow it. So he said that as long as he had a 5th generation of the seed it wouldn't be necessary for me to grow the old seed, and sent me some new seed. So I decided to finally give it a try, and found it not to throw of any segregations. Maybe it's finally stable. I have not made an concious observations of the bean so I don't know much more about it that what I've already said.

"Fowler Pole"

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #41​

A pole snap bean I grew this summer called "Gila River". It always seems a bit late when I grow it here but I always manage to get a fairly good amount of seed from this bean. I always wind up harvesting it's last pods and drying them in my house spread out on a sheet of cardboard. Often times those last pods are vary green, but plump and swollen with seed. I think I'll try growing some of the late varieties I have against the light colored wall of my house that faces south. This bean has a similar seed coat pattern as Anasazi, Moki, Vaquero, Zuni Shalako and some others.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I'll be gone for a few days to my brothers house so I'm going to wish everyone on this thread and everyone who stops by to read this thread a very happy "Thanksgiving".