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

[Blue-Jay]

@aftermidnight,

The other bean from the UK.... Bob and something it's called. I gave the person your mailing address. Maybe they are slow to get the mailing done. When someone requests something from me I usually get on it right away. Sometimes the very day the request is made. Anyway I hope the bean arrives. This person recognized your name form another garden forum you are on. They were happy the bean will have a good home.

I love the color of your pods from your outcrossed Logan Giant. I think I also have read somewhere there is a black Logan Giant but have never seen it listed anywhere. You should plants some of those black beans and maybe you will get the Logan Giant pattern in black and white. Would be neat.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #50
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The first photo ( Top Left Photo) is another snap pole bean I grew this summer called "Lohrey's Special" Has been grown by the Royce Lohrey family of Tasmania for over 60 years.

Second Photo (Top Right) is "Magpie" a bush snap bean originally a bean from France in the early 1900's called "Superlative". "Mapie" is the British naming of the bean.

(Photo Lower Left) Is a bush dry bean I got from Mandy's Garden in Canada called "Maine Bean" it's another yellow eye type.

(Photo Lower Right) Is a pole cranberry type bean called "Major Cooks" that I got 5 years ago from Mark Christensen of the Central Tree Crop Research Trust in New Zealand. The story associated with this bean states that british citizen Harold Luxton was in France during WW1. He returned there to work as a gardener for the War Graves Commission under a Major Cook. Between them they 'bred' a bean to their liking. Luxton was awarded a British Empire medal from the Royal Horticultural Society for his work. Daughter, Sylvia Luxton, came to New Zealand in 1953. Sylvia and husband grew 'Major Cooks' for many years. The bean is very productive.


"Lohrey's Special..................................................."Magpie"


"Maine Bean"......................................................."Major Cooks"

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 I grew Major Cook's in 2014 a very productive pole bean. My source was a gal here on the island , her source was from the UK.

Here's the information I have on this bean.
Age: at least the 1950's but probably longer like the early 1900's
Background: This bean was given to our donor (HSL) Mr. "Lucky" Luxton, by his father in 1960. Mr. Luxton senior had received the seeds of this variety from Major Cook, a colleague of his at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in Albert France from 1954. Major Cook was always a keen gardener, growing prize-winning vegetables with his grandfather, and was trained at Kew before serving in the middle East during WW2. Probably originally developed in South Hampton in about 1900, by Alderman Vokes (Major Cook's Grandfather).
Pros: Produces pretty purple-violet flowers that are followed by a huge crop of stringless beans with a very fine flavour. Robust, prolific, succulent pods, shelled beans have supreme flavour and texture, a genuine all-rounder.

Major Cook originally trained at Kew, London in 1939 where he was a student. His first job was to train people to grow their own food as part of the war effort. Then he joined up in the army in 1940, to be sent to various Arab nations on various missions for 5 years. By 1945 he was a major. He was tasked by the commonwealth War Graves Commission with building cemeteries in Normany, France, after the landings, and later to assist in rebuilding the 1st world war cemeteries in France.

The bean was probably much older however and could have come from Major H.V. Vokes, who was the first horticultural officer for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1920. (He was an uncle of Major Cook). The bean may even be older, in that Major Cook's grandfather was an experimental horticulturist, he was Alderman F. Vokes, Sheriff of Southampton, UK, winner of over 1100 cups/awards for horticulture and there is a flower park named after him near the docks in South Hampton.
Said to be a good multipurpose bean, fat succulent pods with no trace of fibre, mature beans have a gourmet flavour and silky texture which don't break up when cooked.

I found this review when searching for information on this bean...
http://www.angelfire.com/az/garethknight/dots/majorcooks.html

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

@aftermidnight, Thank you so much for all the great information. This is really the complete story of Major Cooks bean. I looked at the Daughter Of The Soil site and that's how the pods looked in my garden this year.

 

[Lori B]

I really enjoyed participating this year. I grew Passage to India and Woodruff.

Both these beans did really well. I planted 6 seeds for each and all 12 came up!

Passage to India is a bush bean rather than a pole. I tried a raw bean and it was fairly tender, so it could be a good snap bean. I wanted to ensure i have enough beans to send back so i didn't dare pick any more to try.

Woodruff grew very well on a cattle panel but was a little late in producing. I pulled all the pods off before the frost came so they could dry inside and then went in for ankle surgery. Unfortunately, when I got home I found that someone (hubby) had set a bunch of stuff on top of the pile I had and they started to sprout rather than dry!! Luckily I had picked some pods the week before that had dried well, so the beans I am sending in are out of the earlier pickings and are top quality. I managed to salvage a handful for me to plant next year out of the pile of sprouted beans (that hadn’t sprouted) and have the rest that weren’t planted this year that were originally sent. Was so sad as I had a large bagful and they are so pretty! Oh well, live and learn…

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Lori B,

I think you know now that drying beans need air circulation. Even better than putting them in a bag. You can put drying pods in an open to the air cardboard box. If pods are even greener than brown. I spread them out on large sheets of flat cardboard. Sometimes when I get something in a large box. I cut the box up so I retain the large sides of the box and then I have a big sheet of flat cardboard to dry bean pods harvested from late in the season.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #51​

This first bean (Top Left Photo) is a bush dry bean called "Mammoth Trout". It comes from the bean collection of former Seed Savers Exchange member the late Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. The bean has larger seeds than "Jacob's Cattle".

In 2014 I found a plant or two growing among Wanamingo (A Robert Lobitz bean) that produced this light flesh toned and white seed (Top Photo Right) with a darker eye ring. I started calling in "Marengo" after one of the nearby towns in our county. It's a bush plant that grows without runners. This year I planted it and it came back true. Will see if it remains that way again in future plantings.

Second Row of Photos Left is a bean called "Money". It's a true bush that grows without runners. The seed is suppossed to have a fairly good amount of white on it with red spotting in the white area. I think the heat this summer and perhaps the soil where I had it growing made the seed come out mostly red.

Second Row Of Photos Right is a pole bean called "Mostoller Wild Goose". It's been in the Mostoller family for 5 generations since about 1865. So the story of their discovery goes that in the autumn of 1865 the two sons of Joesph Mostoller. Either David or John shot a lone goose that landed on a river in Somerset county Pensylvania. Upon preparing the goose for a meal Joseph's Wife Sara found the unusual beans in the goose's crop. Dried and planted them in the spring of 1866. The bean is still with us after five generations.

Third Row Of Photos Left is the beautiful bush dry bean variety "Mrociumere" from Kenya, Africa.

Third Row of Photos Right Is bush variety from South Africa called "Natal Coffee"

Fourth Row Of Photos Left is a pole Lima called "Neptune". This bean was sent to me from a fellow in Kentucky back around 1980 along with two other limas that had no names. So I named all three of them. Later donated them to the Seed Savers Exchange. The bean is still in SSE's bean collections.

Fourth Row Of Photos Right is a low growing semi-runner native American bean called "Nez Perce". Small seeds but very productive.


"Mammoth Trout"................................................"Marengo"


"Money"............................................................."Mostoller Wild Goose"


"Mrociumere"......................................................"Natal Coffee"

"Neptune"........................................................."Nez Perce"

 

[Lori B]

@Lori B,

I think you know now that drying beans need air circulation. Even better than putting them in a bag. You can put drying pods in an open to the air cardboard box. If pods are even greener than brown. I spread them out on large sheets of flat cardboard. Sometimes when I get something in a large box. I cut the box up so I retain the large sides of the box and then I have a big sheet of flat cardboard to dry bean pods harveste from late in the season.

LOL. Yes, I knew that before. I usually would have poured them out of the bag onto a cookie sheet and put it on top of the fridge to dry, but when i set it down, he set his papers on it and it was out of sight, out of mind. All the others got spread out to dry.
i had cookie sheets and paper plates all over the house with my little stashes of jewels. My hubby hates this time of year. . .

 

[Blue-Jay]

Just wanted to give those growers who have not sent in their seed returns for 2016 a heads up that I'm going to be shuting down the mail delviery here shortly after Christmas.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #52​

This is all about an outcross I call "Nippersink". Nippersink harvested this year looks a bit different than the original I found growing in Molasses Face in 2013. (Top Left Photo) Is about how Nippersink originally looked. (Top Right Photo) Is how Nippersink turned out looking this year. I think I like this years version a lot too. The bean grows as a true bush without runners. The next four photos below the top 2 are segregations that Nippersink threw off this year in 2016 and they are all semi-runners.


"Nippersink" 2013 version.............................."Nippersink" 2016