2018 Little Easy Bean Network - Join Us In Saving Amazing Heirloom Beans

[Blue-Jay]

More beans from Bill Best's "Sustainable Mountain Agriculture" seed swap. I thought I would post about 5 beans at a time due to the length of the post.

This sixth beans is a bush red horticultrual bean called "Jesse Fisk" also from Karen Golden.

"Jesse Fisk" - Bush

This seventh bean is a bean that comes originally from Italy. Called "Grandma Gina's. Remy Orlowski from the Sample Seed Shop was handing packets of 25 seeds of these to a bunch of us. She is supposed to have these available on her website. Says available fall of 2018, but I see she still hasn't updated here site The bean is a stringless snap bean with just huge pods. I've got the image of the pod below also.

"Grandma Gina's" - Pole Snap

"Grandma Gina's" - Snap pods

This eigth bean is a bush snap called "White Seeded Pencil Pod" I think it is one of the many modern bred beans meant to have white seeds because they don't discolor the water in your canning jars when they are canned. Pencil Pod was originally a black seeded wax bean bred by Calvin Keeney in the early 1900's. Karen Golden told me I had to have this white seeded one. She says it's fantastic.

"White Seeded Pencil Pod" - Bush Snap

This ninth bean was given to me at the show by a fellow from eastern Kentucky (Kris Hubbard) who runs "Wildwood Farms". Another black seeded Italian roma type bean with wide pods called Rosa's Bean. Brought over from Italy over a hundred years ago.

"Rosa's Bean" - Pole Snap

This tenth bean was being given out by a local Tennessee grower at the swap by the name of Tim Houser. The bean is named "Blue Ribbon Pole". The bean must have won a blue ribbon at a county fair one time which would be my guess.

"Blue Ribbon Pole" - Pole Snap

 

[Blue-Jay]

More beans from Bill Best's "Sustainable Mountain Agriculture" seed swap.

This eleventh bean I think I got from Karen Golden also at the seed swap. It's a selection out of Royal Burgundy by Robert Lobitz and he named his selection "Robert's Royalty". A purple podded bush snap bean. Most purple podded beans have some shade of light tan or what I call buff. I wonder if purple poddedness is linked to the gene for the seed coat color as well.

"Robert's Royalty" - Bush Purple Snap

The twelvth bean is called "Tan Six Weeks" probably a snap bean. Might have strings as the pods become longer. The seeds are very rounded and smaller than a navy bean.

"Tan Six Weeks" - Pole

This thirteenth bean might also be from Karen Golden called "Tonawanda Strawberry". A native American bean of the cranberry or horticultural type seed coat.

"Tonawanda Strawberry" - Pole Dry

My fourteenth acqusition is a pretty Italian pole bean called "Fagiolo di Angelo Impenia.

"Fagiolo di Angelo Impenia" - Pole Dry

Fifteenth bean is "Marrowfat". A bush dry bean I think this one was being handed out by someone at the swap on Saturday.

"Marrowfat" - Bush Dry

 

[Blue-Jay]

More Bill Best's "Sustainable Mountain Agriculture" seed swap beans.

Sitting at the table next to me at the seed swap was a lady from Willis, Kentucky by the name of Rita Milburn. Rita gave me her bean and she told me this bean was a development of hers called "Brown Eyed Bobby". Probably named after her husband or someone she knew. I think she also said the pods do develop strings.

"Brown Eyed Bobby" - Pole

This seventeenth bean is a pole type also from Kris Hubbard of Wildwood Farms. He called it "Wesley Railroad Spike". I'm thinking by the way the seed looks now that fresh seed might strongly resemble "Tennessee Wonder".

"Wesley Railroad Spike" - Pole

Number 18th bean is from Karen Golden also called "Aghstev Ijevan". A pole bean from Armenia.

"Aghstev Ijevan" - Pole Dry

19th bean from Karen Golden called "Doty India #1" Pretty seed that is shorter but colored and marked similarly to one I have called "Ram's Horn". Maybe a snap bean.

"Doty India #1" - Pole

Bean #20 is from Ben Cohen of "Small House Farm" in Sanford, Michigan. It's a pole variety called "Kermit's Smoky Mountain". Grown in the Smoky Mountains for 5 generations. Brought to Michigan 25 years ago by a couple that received the bean from Kermit Caughron who was the last man to have lived in the "Smoky Mountain National Park".

"Kermit's Smoky Mountain" - Pole


This next bean was not from the seed swap, but sent to me from our New Mexico grower who found this outcross in Buxton Buckshot this summer. Small seeds just like Buxton but not as round.

"Buxton Buckshot 2018 Outcross - Pole

Tomorrow October 27th my 2018 Bean Show will begin. Photos of all the beans that I successfully harvest seed from this past summer. I won't post all the beans in one single day but will spread out the show over a period to time so no one overdoses on eye candy.

 

[flowerbug]

Your beans were sent Monday October 22nd. They were in my mailbox yesterday already. Many thanks. Your package was the second one back so far. The first one back was from a grower in New Mexico about a week and a half ago. Thank you also to our New Mexico grower. We had 28 growers this year, and 29 if I count myself. All my beans are dry enough for storage already. There is a third package on it's way back from a grower in Canada. Only 25 more returns to go.

i'm gradually getting there. generally all are now herded in the right direction i just need to finish drying sorting the latest ones. the early ones i've made selections already.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's 2018 Big Bean Show​

"APPLE CREEK". In 2015 Will Bonsall of Industy, Maine with his Scattered Seed Project sent me 52 packets of outcrossed beans. He too was an early member of SSE and remembered that I like to work with outcrosses. I numbered all the packets from 1- 52. This bush bean came from the grow out of packet number 21 in 2015. I grew it again this year and there were no off types from it. Could be this bean is close to becoming stable. So I gave it this name of "Apple Creek". Naming it after a development of contemporary homes in Woodstock, Illinois where I live.

"Apple Creek" - Bush

"ANATOLIAN YELLOW WHITE" The bean is a pole variety from the Anatolian area of Turkey. I grew it for the fist time in 2011. This year is the third time I've grown the bean. For some reason many of the beans did not fill out well and many are shriveled looking and sunken in. Perhaps it was the weather. Last year in 2017 I did a planting and not single seed germinated. I planted the second time with the same results of no germinating seed. I took seed this year from the same batch and they grew.

"Anatolian Yellow White" - Pole

"BEKA BROWN". This was another of my first 35 beans I ordered from John Withee's Wanigan Catalog in 1978. A bush variety which has been a long time favorite baking bean in the New England states. I was the first to list this bean in the SSE yearbook in 1979 with a total of 14 listing years since then. This summer was my fourth time growing the bean again since 2013.

"Beka Brown" - Bush

"AFRICAN PREMIER". My first encounter with this bush dry bean was in 1978 when I found it in a John Withee's Wanigan Associates catalog of 500 bean varieties. I was the first to list the bean in the SSE yearbook in 1980, and the bean has been traded around through SSE off and on ever since. The bean is originally from Kenya. I acquired the bean again from a Port Byron, Illinois SSE member in 2013. This year was my third growout of the bean since 2013. I like is redish pink background with the purple markings. Here is a link to an interesting read about John Withee and his bean network.
https://www.seedsavers.org/withee-exhibit-bean-man

"African Premier" - Bush

"BIG LIGHT RED TROUT". Another dry bush bean that I first encountered and grew in 1981 obtaining it from John Withee's Wanigan bean catalog. I have never listed BLRT in any of the SSE yearbooks. The bean comes as an original variety of early Wanigan and SSE member Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. Ernie loved the trout patterned beans with a passion and has several other varieties to his credit with a Jacob's Cattle and sometimes modified JC pattern. Many bean growers today know one of my original beans the beautiful semi runner called "Candy" that I discovered in 1982. Well "Big Light Red Trout" is it's seed mother. I usually have trouble growing good seed of BLRT in any soil type that I try it in. It's productivity is low and produces lots of smaller misshapen seeds. The largest beans are large like those of "Candy" about two to 2 and 1/2 times larger than Jacob's Cattle.
I grew out BLRT again this summer and you might even be able to see some of the poor seed quality in the photo. I picked the best seed I could find from this summer's grow out for the photo. Fortunately I think "Candy" has inherited just enough better seed producing genes.

"Big Light Red Trout" - Bush

 

[PhilaGardener]

Always fun to see these great varieties!

"I had no intentions of coming back home with any new beans" lol!

 

[Zeedman]

As a bean fan, @Bluejay77 , I always enjoy browsing your photos. Keep 'em coming!

More beans from Bill Best's "Sustainable Mountain Agriculture" seed swap.

This eleventh bean I think I got from Karen Golden also at the seed swap. It's a selection out of Royal Burgundy by Robert Lobitz and he named his selection "Robert's Royalty". A purple podded bush snap bean. Most purple podded beans have some shade of light tan or what I call buff. I wonder if purple poddedness is linked to the gene for the seed coat color as well.
View attachment 28970
"Robert's Royalty" - Bush Purple Snap

I've wondered the same thing. The seed coats of all the purple-podded beans I've grown were very similar, they would actually be hard to separate if mixed together.

My fourteenth acqusition is a pretty Italian pole bean called "Fagiolo di Angelo Impenia.
View attachment 28973
"Fagiolo di Angelo Impenia" - Pole Dry

An interesting bean. Who/what was the source?

 

[flowerbug]

Always fun to see these great varieties!

"I had no intentions of coming back home with any new beans" lol!

ayup...

 

[Blue-Jay]

As a bean fan, @Bluejay77 , I always enjoy browsing your photos. Keep 'em coming!

I've wondered the same thing. The seed coats of all the purple-podded beans I've grown were very similar, they would actually be hard to separate if mixed together.


An interesting bean. Who/what was the source?

Hi Zeedman,

The Fagiolo di Angelo Impenia bean I got from Karen Golden of
"Michigan Herilooms", and I think she got it from Joseph Simcox. You probably know who he is.

I've even found purple podded outcrosses and sometimes the seed is a mottled seed coat. However upon growing out the mottled seed coat I get back the tan or buff seed coat again. I would bet purple poddness in generally linked to the tan seed coat color. However Robert Lobitz had a number of purple podded beans that have the Blooming Prairie seed coat. Then again with many things there is always the exception to the rule.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's Bean Show Day #2​

"BLACK AND WHITE TROUT" - Bush dry bean. I had not encountered a trout bean with this exact name until I acidentally ran across former SSE member Amy Hawks website Simply Beans from Calhan, Colorado in September of 2011 at which time I ordered this bean and about 9 others. I don't know if this is just another name for Black Trout or if there are some differences. If there are they must be very difficult to see. I let her seed sit for two years then planted it. This summer was my third time growing Black & White Trout since 2014 and when I saw my seed crop this year I almost melted seeing how nice the beans turned out. All these photos are this seasons current photos. I spent almost week photoing all of this years beans, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

"Black And White Trout" - Bush

"BLUE JAY" - Bush Snap, green podded. My first outcross discovery in September 1977. Lots of bean growers probably know the whole story of it's history from my website. A bean that I have a personal connection too. A bean I discovered, named, grew to stablize, lost, and discovered again. To find the second time around that it had become a commercial variety in another country and accepted so well by many gardeners was quite a feeling. I had a very small grow out of this bean this season but got some very nice seed, and no segregations.

"Blue Jay" - Bush Snap

"BLACK TROUT" - Bush Dry. Here is the other side of the coin. Trout beans with black in the name. I had first encountered this bean in 1979 from John Withee's Wanigan Associates catalog. I listed the bean in the 1980 SSE yearbook. My most recent acquistion of Black Trout was in March of 2012 when I got it from a SSE member in Washington. With the old SSE yearbook history which used to be online. I was actually able to trace back through the membership listing history everyone who had gotten the bean from a member previous to them. All the way back to my listing in 1980. The same strain of the bean returned to my hands like a boomerang after 32 years. This summer was my fourth grow out of this bean since 2012. I was also very happy with this years seed crop.

"Black Trout" - Bush Dry

"BLACK HORSE" - Bush Dry. This bean is from outcrosses sent to me by Will Bonsall of the Scattered Seed Project. This summer is the third grow out of this bean without any segregations. After listening to a conversation my niece had with her mother, my sister-in-law about someone she knew that started a trucking company named Black Horse. It instantly struck me as the name for this bean. First dry pod in 83 days after planting. The remainder of the seed crop took about three weeks before the plants were all harvested out.

"Black Horse" - Bush Dry

"PEARL LAKE" - Bush dry. After the passing of SSE member Robert Lobitz. One of the SSE members from Hartford, Kansas had gotten a hold of some of the beans that Robert had attached a code to but never named. No doubt, beans he would be growing to stablize before naming them. This fellow became frustrated with the results he was getting and I asked him if I could have a stab at growing these beans. This SSE member had taken all his grow outs and had them stored in his freezer for about 3 years. After receiving the beans in the mail I numbered all the packets that were coded including one which had a few round beans, each of three different colors. All solid colored. One white, black and brown. I grew them out for the second time in 2017 and the white one threw off a couple of solid white segregations. One time I had written to Roberts brother James asking to know a little more about Robert and his life. I also told him I had now acquired those beans he had sent to Kansas. James asked that if I ever named any of these beans to be aware of how Robert had named them after land marks, towns, rivers, lakes and other places in and around the county where he had lived his life. So since this bean was very white and fairly round I thought naming the bean after Pearl Lake in Robert's county of Stearns in Minnesota seemed to fit it well. This years grow out of the bean did not produce any segregations. The first dry pod was harvested quite early. 71 days after planting it's seed.

"Pearl Lake" - Bush Dry