2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[flowerbug]

...
I'm curious has anyone seen the John Withee link on my website when you look at the African Premier bean on the first page of beans. Seed Savers Exchange did the research and the article. The article is a great read. If you click on John Withee in yellow letters you will go to the article entitled "The Life And Legacy Of The Bean Man".

i did read that back when i first went through your website. i just pulled up a dozen or so links on JW and beans so i can have some reading here this morning.

i'll post them just in case someone else doesn't want to go through the search:

Stewardship Stories - SeedSavers

Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange has led the heirloom seed movement. Stories have always been an important part of SSE’s stewardship work.

www.seedsavers.org

Pure Water Gazette » John Withee, the World’s Greatest Bean Collector

www.purewatergazette.net

(fun, but too bad this wasn't taken further)

Category:Bean Varieties - Beancyclopedia

beancyclopedia.com

John Withee's Bean Hole — Seed Savers Exchange Blog

John Withee’s bean collection of 1,186 varieties started with a bean hole. Throughout his childhood, Friday afternoons consisted of John and his family digging a hole, building a fire in that hole, and lowering a pot of beans into it. They placed hot coals and earth over the pot and fil

blog.seedsavers.org

From bean collection to seed bank: transformations in heirloom vegetable conservation, 1970–1985 | BJHS Themes | Cambridge Core

From bean collection to seed bank: transformations in heirloom vegetable conservation, 1970–1985 - Volume 4

www.cambridge.org

2015 Annual Report - Seed Savers Exchange

www.seedsavers.org

Comparative Growouts, and Identifying the True Heirlooms in Heritage Farm's Collections · Ceres Trust

I want to welcome all of you to Seed Savers' 17th annual Campout Convention. Each summer, on this next-to-last full weekend in July, our members gather at Heritage Farm for this special celebration, which is partly a convention and partly a reunion of old friends.

cerestrust.org

Fall Harvest Introduction · Ceres Trust

I first estimated that this “Fall Harvest Edition” would reach you during October. I figured it would be nice to receive it about the time when many of you were harvesting and working with your seeds. But I decided that I wanted to write most of it after I had attended the Seed Banks Serving...

cerestrust.org

The Preservation Garden · Ceres Trust

From 1985 Harvest Edition, Seed Savers Exchange · What in the world would ever cause two men and a boy to try to grow out over 2,000 varieties of garden plants on five acres? The main reasons were two seed collections totaling nearly 5,000 varieties, and the result was that most fantastic...

cerestrust.org

 

[Blue-Jay]

is there a version of that on-line any place? hmm, i guess i could search for it...

no year on the item, but here's a version of it:

That particular bean book in green ink was put out by John in 1978. That is the one I still have. After I joined Wanigan Associates John put out 2 more of his bean catalogs. Each one was done in a different color ink. I don't know why but I didn't save those other versions. I wish I had. Even Seed Savers Exchange would like to get a hold of a copy of each one.

 

[Blue-Jay]

i'll post them just in case someone else doesn't want to go through the search:

Great job with all these links @flowerbug. There are some articles there that I have not seen.

 

[flowerbug]

Great job with all these links @flowerbug. There are some articles there that I have not seen.

have you seen this book?

The bean man | WorldCat.org

The bean man | WorldCat.org

www.worldcat.org

and here is John's book:

Growing and cooking beans | WorldCat.org

Growing and cooking beans | WorldCat.org

www.worldcat.org

another book while i'm at it:

Heirloom beans : Grammy Tiller, Hobb's Goose, Lazy Wife | WorldCat.org

Heirloom beans : Grammy Tiller, Hobb's Goose, Lazy Wife | WorldCat.org

www.worldcat.org

 

[flowerbug]

That particular bean book in green ink was put out by John in 1978. That is the one I still have. After I joined Wanigan Associates John put out 2 more of his bean catalogs. Each one was done in a different color ink. I don't know why but I didn't save those other versions. I wish I had. Even Seed Savers Exchange would like to get a hold of a copy of each one.

there's nothing indexed in the catalogues i can search (local library consortium, the michigan state system and then worldcat). maybe there might be a copy in someone's personal collection... have you asked on the bean group on other web sites for seed savers (i'm not on FB or Seed Savers)?

i'd be surprised if nobody has them.

ask ASAP before people declutter and throw them away by accident!

 

[flowerbug]

i'm enjoying reading this one:

From bean collection to seed bank: transformations in heirloom vegetable conservation, 1970–1985 | BJHS Themes | Cambridge Core

From bean collection to seed bank: transformations in heirloom vegetable conservation, 1970–1985 - Volume 4

www.cambridge.org

this part i love, but i have to admit i like it all.

"Through the efforts of Keys and others, 110 of Berrier's varieties have been assigned PI numbers since 1983. As of 8 September 2017, it was possible for a researcher anywhere in the world to log in to GRIN-Global, a database used by the US National Plant Germplasm System for cataloguing and distributing plant germplasm, and order a sample of twenty-five seeds for all but four of these bean accessions. He or she could also order samples of a hundred seeds each for six of eight maize varieties originating from Berrier's material that have been regenerated and increased but not given PI numbers. Evidence of the origin of these accessions in Berrier's collection lives on in the accession records. Many of these records have a transcription of Berrier's handwritten labels in the database field ‘Plant name’, which is typically populated with a variety name or a breeders’ inventory number. You can search for and order beans he identified with a clear variety name, like ‘Dixie Butterpea Speckled Bush’ and ‘Bird Egg Pole Bean’, and also those he referred only by appearance or their source, such as ‘Pearl Ill [Illinois] Butter Bean’, ‘New Bean Gina’, or ‘Shiney’. Other samples whose common names or origins Berrier did not know are listed in the system by the number on the original jar label: ‘455’, ‘459 + 0’, or ‘2685 + 179’.Footnote 57"

 

[flowerbug]

love this too:

The Bean Men · Ceres Trust

I was finally going to meet John Withee. We were both in Tucson to speak at the Seed Banks Serving People workshop. I’d had a display case built so John could display his collection at the workshop. I was going to send it to him to fill in Massachusetts, but time had gotten too short and he had...

cerestrust.org

it is great that you are mentioned in both of these Russ.

and this has me giggling like mad:

[
Kent: “That’s good, because I would especially like to get those to Ralph…. and Russell is simply fascinated with crosses…..”


John: “Oh, really? That’s the way Ernest Dana is up in New Hampshire…..He’s got one that he calls Dana’s Cross and another that is a Soldier that is crossed with something else. But when I’ve spoken with Prof. Meador about crosses, he just sort of grins…..The common Phaseolus just resists crossing…..How are you going to prove it’s a cross? I guess I just haven’t paid that much attention to them, having had the word from the expert (Prof. Meador) that’s it…”

Kent: “…..That it doesn’t happen?…..”

John: “Oh, absolutely, it happens. But the way they like to describe it is that it more often is a genetic shift than it is a real cross. The weak genes in the plant succumb of increase according to conditions or soil pH or whatever…..that sort of a shift is actually what happens more often than actual crossing due to insects or weather…..In all of the times that I have tried them, and every year I have tried some of these outcrosses or mixups or whatever you want to call them, I come up with all sorts of variable results.”

Kent: “Have you ever become so interested in one that you tried to stabilize it?”

John: “Oh yes, and I have done it on one occasion when I gave a variety a name – Lynnfield, after my town. It was out of a pole bean that Ernest Dana sent me. When I grew it I saw a difference in some of the plants and in their earliness. So I marked those, separated them and found that the difference showed up in the seed…..Prof. Meador had told me that if it would maintain that characteristic through three plantings, three growouts, then it could be called a new variety…..”And that is what happened and I gave it the name Lynnfield. But I would not be so bold as to say that definitively, because as you know, grown somewhere else, it might revert back to the other…..”

John: “I think we should have a contest and tell people – In this collection of over 800 different beans are three look alikes. If you can find them…..”
]

hahaha! i feel like i'm talking to myself reading that...


oh great there's a whole section talking about Russ and Ralph Stevenson (who i've never heard of before) !

great reading and closing with this very appropriate quote:

[
(From Russell’s Letters) – “People should always wait until the weather and soil are both warm when planting beans. Don’t try to rush it. Beans planted two or three weeks later will often do better and mature just as fast as those that have been struggling during that period to overcome cold weather…..The biggest problem for the bean grower is wet weather during harvest. If it is raining when the pods should be drying, the beans just sprout in the pods. It can really be a mess. A week of rain at the wrong time can take you from having a good crop to just hoping you get seed back…..”
]

 

[flowerbug]

continuing with stories this is a good read too:

Comparative Growouts, and Identifying the True Heirlooms in Heritage Farm's Collections · Ceres Trust

I want to welcome all of you to Seed Savers' 17th annual Campout Convention. Each summer, on this next-to-last full weekend in July, our members gather at Heritage Farm for this special celebration, which is partly a convention and partly a reunion of old friends.

cerestrust.org

i can't pick parts to quote... too much good stuff in there.

 

[flowerbug]

i was hoping my last bit (but i found another after this one) for this morning from:

The Preservation Garden · Ceres Trust

From 1985 Harvest Edition, Seed Savers Exchange · What in the world would ever cause two men and a boy to try to grow out over 2,000 varieties of garden plants on five acres? The main reasons were two seed collections totaling nearly 5,000 varieties, and the result was that most fantastic...

cerestrust.org

[

"
When the Wanigan Associates collection was turned over to me, I received almost exactly 900 samples of beans. The others had already died out of the collection. Of that 900 probably half of them were either four years old or tiny samples of ten seeds or less. I formed a Growers Network within the SSE. During the springs of 1982 and 1983, 350 gardeners each year agreed to grow bean seeds for me and return them. I sent out over 2,400 packets of beans each of those two springs. By the end of those two years, we had good quantities of new seed of over 800 of the varieties. The Growers Network had done a fantastic job.


But one problem did emerge during that project that has been continuing and unsolvable. When the seeds were returned to me those two seasons it quickly became apparent that about 10% of them were mistakes. Now I don’t mean outcrosses; I mean just mistakes where seeds had been mixed up. This worried me terribly, because I had hoped to build a Growers Network that was capable of maintaining everything that came through the Seed Savers Exchange. But if people were going to make that amount of mistakes when they could see the difference in the seeds, imagine the problems that would be created with seeds that weren’t visually distinct, such as tomatoes and peppers. It’s a problem that I still have no idea how to solve. Please don’t get me wrong. There are people that grow out a hundred lines of beans for me each year and return beautiful seed and I am very thankful for their participation.


Because of these problems, the Seed Savers Exchange switched last year from a program of grow and return to one of long-term maintenance. We asked that gardeners actually “adopt” seeds, agree to maintain them for at least five years, and during that time also offer them through their Yearbook listings, so they would be available to others. At the end of that five years they could either turn them back in to the SSE seed collection or continue to maintain them. Thus far we have distributed only beans, and that will also be the case this year."

]

 

[flowerbug]

@Bluejay77 this is a tremendous honor and memory from:

Caretakers of Wonder · Ceres Trust

Some of you have been to our past Campouts and were lucky enough to meet Jeff McCormack and Patty Wallens. They’re both very special people, wise and intuitive. Jeff has been on Seed Savers’ Board of Directors for several years now. Last Christmas Jeff and Patty sent my family a little book...

cerestrust.org

[

"
Some of you have been to our past Campouts and were lucky enough to meet Jeff McCormack and Patty Wallens. They’re both very special people, wise and intuitive. Jeff has been on Seed Savers’ Board of Directors for several years now. Last Christmas Jeff and Patty sent my family a little book called Caretakers of Wonder. It is a wonderful children’s book that was written by Cooper Edens, who also did its beautiful illustrations. It’s even available through our local bookstore, so I imagine you could find it in bookstores across the country. The book makes a wonderful gift, especially for families with small children. Let me read you parts of it, because I know some of you will enjoy it as much as my family does.


“This very night, while you lie quietly in your bed, open your eyes. Now, look out your window! For even at this yawning hour, so many of your friends are working to keep the world magical. Yes, they are the ones who make new stars and put them up… The ones who keep the moon company, feeding him when he’s too thin and watching his diet when he’s too full. The ones who keep the sky and the horizon tightly fastened to each other… They are the ones weaving the meadows and telling the trees where to stand. The ones putting fruit back on the branches. The ones painting feathers on birds and designs on the wings of butterflies. The ones practicing the great rainbow balancing act. The ones collecting yesterday’s raindrops, mending old clouds, and delivering newly stuffed ones… They are the ones who will raise the sun into place. The ones who will load up the night and bring it back to storage. The ones who will give the wind directions, fly the clouds, and tell the rain where to fall… Now, while you sleep tonight… imagine what you most would like to do to help keep the world magical? For you know that one of these nights your friends are going to tap on your window and invite you to become one of the Caretakers of Wonder.”


My kids really love this little book, and so do I. A decade ago when Seed Savers was really starting to take shape, one of the things I hoped for was the chance to garden full-time. That seems rather ironic now, because almost all of my time is spent in an office sitting at a computer terminal. During the day I am seldom in the gardens at Heritage Farm. But I walk in the gardens almost every evening, usually at dusk. Dusk is a very special time of day, a time when we see much more clearly, so I often walk at dusk in the gardens. One evening last week, my seven-year-old daughter Carrie and I were walking in the gardens, hand in hand. We were walking up and down the rows, marveling at the incredible beauty and diversity. The chill that flows through the valley each evening had just brushed past us. I told Carrie that our family was very lucky being able to live at Heritage Farm surrounded by this beauty, and that many of these unique varieties were probably being grown only in our gardens. Carrie smiled up at me with her big brown eyes sparkling and exclaimed, “We really are caretakers of wonder.”


Since then I have been thinking a lot about all of us being caretakers of wonder, if you will. I’ve also been thinking about the child-like wonder that we are all born with, but seem to lose somewhere along the way. As we grow older, our thought processes change and become more developed. We become increasingly immersed in thought and gradually lose the ability to feel with our hearts. The loss of those deep feelings also diminishes our ability to dream about the way things could be; what were once vitally important dreams often just shrivel. Deep inside every one of us, however, that sense of child-like wonder still exists. But now it takes some very special situations to touch it, to bring it back out. Each of us still experiences that sense of wonder when we see the beauty of a delicate wildflower, when we walk among apple trees in full fruit, when we see a squash blossom early in the morning sparkling with dew, when we watch a hawk circling and hear it scream, or when we stand deep in a pine woods just listening and feeling.


These moments of wonder touch all of us at certain times. I have tried to think back to the moments that have touched me deeply during the last ten years. Some of those moments would include trips that I made to visit a few of Seed Savers’ larger collectors early on. By 1981 I had been working with Seed Savers Exchange for half a dozen years already. The network had grown to the point that some of our folks were putting together fairly good collections of more than 300 varieties, which at that time we thought were huge. One trip took me near Chicago to meet Russ Crow, and then on over into Michigan to meet Ralph Stevenson. Russ and Ralph were both bean collectors. That same summer I also traveled to western Minnesota to meet a potato collector named Robert Lobitz. Each time that I met one of these fellows, we ended up walking in their gardens at dusk. Those gardens were the first times that I had ever seen the diversity available to gardeners in this country. Those were the first times that I really saw our garden heritage.


I remember walking in Russ Crow’s garden and being blown away by all of those beans… (laughter)… Oh, come on now. We weren’t eating them. We were just looking at the plants… (laughter)… There were about 300 different varieties of beans in that one garden. I had never seen anything like it and was absolutely amazed at the diversity. The leaves were all different sizes and had different shapes. The plants ranged in size from the smallest dwarfs to vigorous giants shooting over the tops of 12’ poles. There were a dozen different blossom colors. And in that golden light at dusk, for the first time I saw the plants as a hundred different shades of green, which somehow really surprised me. Until that evening I had never seen more than a couple of varieties of beans growing in the same garden. And the next evening Russ and I were walking with Ralph Stevenson in his bean garden in Michigan, and I was again filled with the same feelings of awe.


Later that summer I traveled to western Minnesota to meet Robert Lobitz. We walked in his garden and he showed me nearly 300 named varieties of potatoes that he was maintaining and another 2,000 seedling varieties that he was testing. Robert had also gotten a lot of material out of the USDA’s potato collection at Sturgeon Bay, many of which were wild species of potatoes from Peru. I was amazed at the variation in the foliage of those wild species. Some of them looked like marigolds, some looked like radishes and others looked like tobacco. A few even had leaves that looked like tomatoes. I remember joking that I had seen lots of potato-leaved tomatoes, but those were my first tomato-leaved potatoes. The plants were all so incredibly different. That was the first time that I had ever seen that amount of variation in the wild species of a cultivated crop.

]

just awesome writer and great history.