2020 Little Easy Bean Network - An Exciting Adventure In Heirloom Beans !

[VA_LongBean]

Is anyone getting broken links on Google when trying to search for my website? abeancollectorswindow.com

I was able to pull it right up.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Pretty neat article on Mary Ann Fox. I remember being at that vary SSE Conference/Campout when her beans were being given away. I picked one of her beans but it didn't grow the next summer when I planted it. Her beans were in Pepsi bottles and jars under a tent but the sun was shinning on most of those containers and it seemed like those beans just sort of slow cooked all afternoon in those bottles. I got one of Mary Ann Fox's beans when she was still alive. It was her Money bean. She sent me that same photo of her by here horse that's in the article. I don't know if anyone got any of those beans of her's to grow the next summer in 2014.

 

[flowerbug]

Pretty neat article on Mary Ann Fox. I remember being at that vary SSE Conference/Campout when her beans were being given away. I picked one of her beans but it didn't grow the next summer when I planted it. Her beans were in Pepsi bottles and jars under a tent but the sun was shinning on most of those containers and it seemed like those beans just sort of slow cooked all afternoon in those bottles. I got one of Mary Ann Fox's beans when she was still alive. It was her Money bean. She sent me that same photo of her by here horse that's in the article. I don't know if anyone got any of those beans of her's to grow the next summer in 2014.

that would be a shame if none of them grew for anyone.

 

[Zeedman]

how many here understand this woman?

A Hill of Beans

When Mary Ann Fox passed away this winter, she left behind quite a legacy - thousands and thousands of heirloom beans.

modernfarmer.com

Mary Ann was my source for several beans; I still grow Madeira (a pole dry bean) and "Tucomares Chocolate" (a brown-seeded runner bean) obtained from her in 2006. She was among those who first inspired me to increase my own efforts, along with Will Bonsall and Robert Lobitz. It is always a sad day, when we lose such dedicated seed stewards... we have lost too many of those in recent years, often leaving their precious collections to perish untended.

that would be a shame if none of them grew for anyone.

A shame indeed; a good idea, but poorly executed.

Within a year or two of Mary Ann's death, another SSE bean steward, Richard Schoolmaster, also passed away. Fortunately, another Michigan seed saver & fellow SSE member (whose name I would not use here without permission) stepped up, took custody of his collection, and made a really commendable effort to disseminate his seeds to other passionate growers via several forums. That effort was fortunately successful in preserving at least part of his collection. IMO that is how our seed saving community should work.

Russ has built a strong bean saving network here, that runs parallel to SSE, and protects a lot of beans from potential catastrophe.

 

[flowerbug]

for those of us who have big enough collections it might be worth figuring out if we can clone them to each other. even 50 seeds per item can be plenty in an emergency.

i for one do not have freezer space at the moment, but eventually i might be able to do that.

in the meantime anyone feel free to send me anything you'd like. even if i can't grow them i can spread them around or hang on to them until you need them back. i do worry about in case of fires and other accidents. it was very tough for me to travel in the car with almost my entire collection.

i was so happy when that lady took all those old beans (from you C) at this past seed swap. i was trying so hard all that day to give my whole table of samples away. not many people really wanted them. too many mutts, too many dry beans, no names and not enough of a story to attract enough people to adopt them. BUT i am working on that. i sure hope this next meeting at the local library isn't cancelled but it might be... we'll see...

@reedy i did manage to pass along the snap bush bean mix seeds that you sent to me and whatever i managed to grow of them. i made a blend up of those and some of my others too so they were getting quite a number of beans to try out. i told people that they could try them and if they didn't like them they could just pull out the ones they didn't like and go from there. i'm tempted to do that with a lot more beans in the future. it gives people more options and it seems to catch enough more interest than just my single mutts and such...

 

[Blue-Jay]

I got some good news on the remainder of my original named beans from the early 1980's that have been in Seed Savers Exchange Heritage Farm's bean collections for who knows how many years. They have been in frozen storage and I'm sure will germinate well. They are going to send them to me. When they arrive I will photo them and put up the photos here on the Little Easy Bean Network Thread.

The names of these are beans are

Little Ernie's Eye - Bush dry
Fox - Bush dry
Humason's Lite - Bush dry
Buster Brown - Bush dry
White Bird - Semi Runner dry
Black Bird - Semi Runner dry
Speckled Goose - Pole dry
Saturn - Semi Runner dry

 

[flowerbug]

I got some good news on the remainder of my original named beans from the early 1980's that have been in Seed Savers Exchange Heritage Farm's bean collections for who knows how many years. They have been in frozen storage and I'm sure will germinate well. They are going to send them to me. When they arrive I will photo them and put up the photos here on the Little Easy Bean Network Thread.

The names of these are beans are

Little Ernie's Eye - Bush dry
Fox - Bush dry
Humason's Lite - Bush dry
Buster Brown - Bush dry
White Bird - Semi Runner dry
Black Bird - Semi Runner dry
Speckled Goose - Pole dry
Saturn - Semi Runner dry

i'm curious, would it be better to put them right back in the freezer until right before you plan on planting them? you can take your pics when they come out for planting.

all IMO @Bluejay77 as i really am not a scientist of see saving yet.

nice few days here and there now so good to be outside a bit.

 

[Blue-Jay]

i'm curious, would it be better to put them right back in the freezer until right before you plan on planting them? you can take your pics when they come out for planting.

I will probably put these beans in the freezer shortly after I photo them. All my bean ground is all planned out for this year. So will probably grow these out next year in 2021.

 

[flowerbug]

I will probably put these beans in the freezer shortly after I photo them. All my bean ground is all planned out for this year. So will probably grow these out next year in 2021.

are you getting more seed requests now?

 

[Blue-Jay]

are you getting more seed requests now?

Seed requests keep coming at a nice rate. The week the website was down I got emails requesting beans from people who had seen the site just before it went down. They must have made a list of what they wanted and emailed their lists to me.

I am getting way more seed requests since the middle of December than I did even last spring when I got home from Florida. I have already here in March mailed out more than 50% of the number of packages that I mailed out all of last year. I have people that have gotten seed from me previously who come back for more.

The young lady who cuts my hair gave me a laugh one time when she said "Beans are your job now". I said to her I guess I created a job for myself in retirement with the beans.