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

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's Bean Show Day #3​

''BREJO" - Pole Snap. Said to be a Native American variety that probably dates back eons of time. Supposedly it is fairly cold hardy and can be planted when day time high are in the 60's. I obtained my original start of the bean in 2012 from a SSE member who has grown the bean since 1994. My first grew out was in 2013. This year was my second grow out. It has a noticable bend in the seed around the center of the bean. Green pods with some purple streaking.

"Brejo - Pole Snap

''BROWN TROUT" -Bush Dry. My first encounter with this bean was back in 1978. If you guessed that I got it from John Withee's Wanagin catalog you would be spot on. The bean is an original bean from Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. He had a passion for trout patterened beans. Unlike Jacob's Cattle that has pods that are oval. This bean has rounded green pods that remind me of a snap bean. The bean also seems sensitive to different soils. Sometimes the bean is solid brown and at times just a little bit of white area in the seed, but this year was pretty good. I was happy with the way 2018's seed looked. I know another spot in my county where I will get even nicer looking Brown Trout beans. It's amazing how the soil can vary in various places and not far from where I live.

"Brown Trout" - Bush

"BOSNIAN POLE" - Pole Snap bean from Bosnia. Remy Orlowski, from The Sample Seed Shop got this variety going here in the U.S. and Canada. She got seed from a gardener from the Netherlands who got them from a neighbour who fled from Bosnia during the war. I acquired the bean from Shirley Bellows of Mill Bay, B.C. Canada six years ago. Shirley got them from Annette Barley of Nanaimo B.C. Canada located on Vancouver Island. Annette is familiar with the offerings of Remy's Sample Seed Shop. Shirley is the western Canda representative for Seeds Of Diversity Canda. That's like the Candian equivolent of our Seed Savers Exchange. I grew them for the second time this year and a deer striped the plants half way down from the top of the poles. Still got enough good seed to cover a picnic plate one layer. Other than that the bean is an outstanding yielder.

"Bosnian Pole" - Pole Snap

"BRAUNER BAR" - Bush Dry. A German variety. If you speak German you know it's name is Brown Bear. Obtained this bean from a New York state Seed Savers Exchange member seven years ago. He obtained the bean from a German bean aficionado. My first grow out of the bean was during our blazing hot dry summer of 2012 but harvested a small but decent crop that year. The bean reminds me of a brown eye patched Molasses Face. Since then the bean has thrown off lots of off types and my seed supply of this one is very tiny. I've been saving the normal looking seed each season and doing a regrow every summer in hopes of purging all the funny beans. I haven't found any of the off types to be interesting looking so they become baked beans.

"Brauner Bar" - Bush Dry

"Black Oak Lake" - Bush Dry. Working with Robert Lobitz's coded but unnamed beans since 2015. I list them on my computer spread sheet as Robert Lobitz Legacy Beans. I wouldn't say that any of these number coded beans are stable yet. I also grew out the rounded black seed from the packet that had three colors of rounded beans. This year was the second grow out of the bean without any segregations. I gave the bean the name of one of the lakes in Stearns county where Robert lived his life on his father's vegetable farm. Harvest it's first dry pod in 69 days. The remainder of the pods took several weeks to be harvested.

"Black Oak Lake" - Bush Dry

"BOMBA" - Bush Dry. Ukrainian bean received from Joseph Simcox five years ago. This year was my third grow out of Bomba and got a nice seed crop. Can't tell you much about the history of the bean.

"Bomba" - Bush Dry

 

[flowerbug]

do you know what the Bomba pods look like?

to me it looks like a cross between Purple Dove and Fort Portal Jade or similar varieties...

 

[aftermidnight]

"It has a noticable bend in the seed around the center of the bean" this must be a characteristic of this variety. I bought Brejo from Seed Dreams back in 2012. I noticed the same quirk when I grew it.

Annette

 

[Lady0bug]

do you know what the Bomba pods look like?

to me it looks like a cross between Purple Dove and Fort Portal Jade or similar varieties...

The Bomba seeds look interesting; almost an iridescent look . Curious, does the plant have purple veining?

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Bomba seeds look interesting; almost an iridescent look . Curious, does the plant have purple veining?

Hi @Lady0bug

No the plant doesn't have purple veining. How did the grow out go up there in the land of 10,000 lakes?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's Bean Show Day #3​

"CANDY" - Semi Runner - Dry, Shelly. I've never eaten this bean so I'm just guessing at it's uses. I thought I had read a Heritage Farm listing of the bean one year and they thought it had a snap bean use as well. Produces it's best seed crop when allowed to climb on a support to keep most of it's pods off the ground. Discovered in my Capron, Illinois garden in the early 1980's. It came an outcross or off type of Big Light Red Trout. About 100 days for the bean to start producing dry pods

"Candy" - Semi Runner

"CANOE" - Bush Dry. One of the many varieties in the Robert Lobitz legacy of beans. Released through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 1999. My 2018 growout produced too many off types so my Canoe crop is very scant. First acquired this bean from an Iowa SSE member in 2013. 73 days this year for it to begin producing dry pods.

"Canoe" - Bush Dry

"EDEN VALLEY" Bush dry grows without runners. One of Roberts Lobitz's legacy beans that I've been working with since 2015. In 2017 the bean was a segregation of a rounded brown bean and in 2018 this bean produced no off types. Early, producing it's first dry pod in 71 days.

"Eden Valley" - Bush Dry

''CEDAR LAKE" - Bush dry. Another of the lovely looking beans of the Robert Lobitz legacy. Robert would release most of his beans through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook. In 2006 he described this bean as 80 days. This year I got 86 days to first dry pods with direct sunlight up to 2 in the afternoon. First acquired this bean from Synergy Seeds in California in 2011.

''CEDAR LAKE" - Bush dry. Another of the lovely looking beans of the Robert Lobitz legacy. Robert would release most of his beans through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook. In 2006 he described this bean as 80 days. This year I got 86 days to first dry pods with direct sunlight up to 2 in the afternoon. First acquired this bean from Synergy Seeds in California in 2011.

"Cedar Lake" - Bush Dry

"CHEROKEE BEAN" Semi Runner dry. Red horticultural type I purchased from Urban Harvest in Texas before they stopped selling this bean. Fairly large size seed. This was my third grow out since 2012. I have yet to produce a good size seed crop with it as something like weather or animals always seem to work against me every time I decide to plant this one. Nearly 100 days to start of dry pods this year.

"Cherokee Bean" - Semi Runner Dry
​

 

[aftermidnight]

Russ the last time I grew CANDY I got a couple of reversed color seed

I believe I sent them on to you, The name you gave them represents them well, just from the looks of them you'd think if you popped one in your mouth you'd taste peppermint .
Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ the last time I grew CANDY I got a couple of reversed color seedView attachment 29032
I believe I sent them on to you, The name you gave them represents them well, just from the looks of them you'd think if you popped one in your mouth you'd taste peppermint .
Annette

Yes you did send me the reversed Candy seeds. I haven't grown them yet. I think I do see some this year myself. A few beans that are dark red with only a couple of light colored stripes. Perhaps I just never paid attention to it before. Maybe I just see the beans as I first saw them back in the early 80's when I popped open that first pod of them. Maybe my mind is just one track when it comes to this bean. I've also got a Candy outcross from in lady in Austria that I haven't planted.

 

[Lady0bug]

@Bluejay77 - Grow out went mostly well. Comtesse de Chomboro was a failure as nothing germinated for me. Otherwise good yields on all of the Robert Lobitz's beans except Amber Queen. I did not have good success with the first batch of Amber Queen outside, only got around 30 seeds total of them. Second batch went into the greenhouse as I had some space and is still drying in garage at the moment. Otherwise all other grow out bean is dried and packed up ready to send off.

My favorite bean this year was Purple Dove, beautiful plant although it did get attacked heavily by Japanese Beatles like everyone else noted. I'll be growing that out again next year for snap beans. I also really enjoyed shelling Paynesville Amber as the pods were very straight and it dried extremely well. I did have a segregation in the Paula bean as noted in a different post with pictures of it; the plant had purple veining much like Purple Dove, but it was a larger plant. I will send you half of the Paula cross seed in case others want to play around with growing it out to see what it does.

Enjoying all your bean pictures. Keep them coming!

 

[Blue-Jay]

I've got a new cranberry outcross that I'm working with that will show in posts this coming month. The reverse of it I think is really nice looking. Bold and striking I think.