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

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #55​

In the autumn of 2011 I bought 4 pounds of Jacob's Cattle from Rancho Gordo in California to make soup out of. When the beans arrived I spread them out on a table to see if by chance their were any odd beans in the batch. Sure enough I found three dark purple looking beans with a little spot of white on the bottom and near one end of the seed. Of course I had to grow them the next year in 2012. What a grueling growing season that was. 90 + degrees everyday from the begining of June to nearly the end of August with maybe just two decent rains all summer. Most of the varieties were stunted but produced seed in small amounts. I watered as much as I could. I thought I was lucky to find those three odd beans in Jacob's Cattle so I named the bean Rabbit's Foot. Didn't know what a fitting name that would turn out to be. The plants turned out to be bush plants. Only one of those three plants produced any pods and the one plant that produced pods only had three dry pods on it by the end of the season and only one pod had just one seed in it. So not wanting to risk that one seed to the out of doors elements I grew that one seed in a flower pot inside the house in a west facing sliding glass door window. I think I wound up with about 20 seeds in 2013. So enough seeds to risk growing them in my big bean plot outside in 2014. Well that grow out produces 7 segregations. Two of which I didn't grow this year. So this first post is just Rabbits foot that I grew out this 2016 season and it didn't produce any segregations. With the next posts I'll start with the segregations I grew this year and any segregations those beans produced.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #55​

Rabbit's Foot Segregation #1 (Photo Top Left). This bean winds up being a semi-runner and produces 3 segreations of it's own, two of which are semi-runners and one throws off such a long vine I think it will probably be a pole bean.


"Rabbit's Foot Segreation #1"......................"Segregation of Segregation #1, semi-runner"


"Segregation of Segregation #1", semi-runner..."Segregation of Segregation #1", maybe pole bean

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #55​

Rabbit's Foot Segregation #3 (Photo Top Left). This bean produces three segregations and all are bush plants without runners.


"Rabbit's Foot Segregation #3........................."Segregation of Segregation #3"


"Segregation of Segregation #3"....................."Segregation of Segregation #3"

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #55
​

Rabbit's Foot Segregation #4 (Photo Top Left) This produces a bush plant and two segreations of it's own which are all bush plants also. (Bottom Photo Right) is Segregation #5 which grew as a true bush plant and did not produce any segregations.


"Rabbit's Foot Segregation #4".........................."Segregation of Segregation #4"



"Segregation of Segregation #4"......................."Rabbit's Foot Segregation #5"

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #55
​

(Photo Left) Is Rabbit's Foot Segregation #6 which grows as a true bush plant without runners. (Photo Right) is the only segregation that Rabbit's Foot Segregation #6 produced and it too was a true bush plant without runners.


"Rabbit's Foot Segregation #6............................"Segregation of Segregation #6

"

 

[Ridgerunner]

That just whets my appetite for what I might see next year when I grow segregations from what I got this year from the beans you sent me. I'm hoping for some stability but you have to grow them to see what you get. I pulled those seeds out of the freezer yesterday just to look at them again.

I recently looked at the outcrosses on your website, just to enjoy the show. I can see why you wanted us to come up with some names for what we grew, the number of beans you have needing names is mind-boggling. I know you've posted it before but I'll copy the link to your site in case someone else wants to visit.

http://www.abeancollectorswindow.com/

You have me doing the same thing, looking through my regular beans as I clean them, looking for something different. I have one I don't want to really comment on until I grow it. I don't know if it is a true difference or one of those "growing conditions" or "natural variations" type thing but I found a small handful that look different to me. I'm kind of excited about it, hoping I have something good to report next year.

 

[Lady0bug]

Hi Everyone! I am new to this site, but Russ has already made me feel at home. I wanted to share a bean that my kids found while helping shell black valentine beans (on the left) and what they call the swirly beans (on the right). Plan on growing them out next year. Curious if anyone has seen a bean like this one? It was only one plant and the beans are slightly larger. I have grown the black valentine beans for four seasons and this was the first time one was not black. I need to get better lighting for future pictures.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @Lady0bug,

Did your kids find these beans this year? Do you grow the Black Valentine every year? If so what also were you growing around the Black Valentine two years ago. I'm just trying to see if we can determine what might have crossed with your Black Valentine. Did you get the Black Valentine from somenone else this past season. Sometimes beans get crossed in other people's grow outs then we wind up finding the results when we get beans from them.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #56​

(Photo Top Left) This year I got a hold of one of my original beans from Seed Savers Exchange that I named "Red Turtle". I discovered this bean in "Black Turtle Soup" in 1979. I don't ever remember the bean throwing off any segregations. The plants grow as a semi-runner just like it's seed mother does. The bean is productive and healthy. The bean seems to put up with both hot and cool summers. Over the years 9 Seed Saver members have grown the bean. (Photo Top Right) is "Rode Soldatenboon, or Red Soldier Bean. I received the bean from Jannes Aalders in the Netherlands just after Christmas in 2013. The plants grow as a true bush without runners. A very nice productive bean. (Photo Bottom Left) is "Rustproof Golden Wax" I got this bean from Guy Dirix in Belgium in the spring of 2016. The figure around the eye is not like Rustproof wax beans sold here in the U.S. It looks more like an older type that was grown in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The pods this year grew very short. Enough room for about 2 seeds per pod. I don't know if that is normal or if that was caused by my growing season. I will grow them again in 2017. (Photo Bottom Right) is "Sailor" a bush dry bean that grows without runner and is productive. I had grown the bean back in the early 1980's having obtained it from John Withee's Wanigan bean colletion. John Withee never gave a source for this bean.



"Red Turtle"..................................................."Rode Soldatenboon


"Rustproof Golden Wax"..............................."Sailor"

 

[Blue-Jay]

(Photo Top Left) Is a bean I got from a lady in Derby, England in early 2012 called "Rose d' Eyragues". She said she had gotten it from a friend that bought it in a market in Paris. (Photo Top Right) Is a bean that came out of a cross of "Rose d' Eyragues". I named the bean "Sweetwater". It is fairly productive, and grows as a true bush without runners. It has very large leaves and you can hardly tell when it has come into bloom. The leaves hide the blossoms and pods very well. (Photo Bottom Left) Is a pole bean that is a native American variety called "Seneca Cornstalk". The bean is beautiful and very productive. The plants produce lots of 4 inch pods. (Photo Bottom Right) Is "Skaroora Bread" another native American bean. It's a red cranberry type seed. Very beautiful. I grew it in partial shade this summer so it's hard to tell how productive the bean might be. I grew it on a pole support so I also don't know how far the bean might climb.


"Rose d' Eyragues"..................................................."Sweetwater"



"Seneca Cornstalk"....................................................."Skaroora Bread"