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

[Blue-Jay]

have you seen this book?

The only book that you list out of those 3 that I have seen is the cook book. I have a signed copy by John Withee.

have you asked on the bean group on other web sites for seed savers (i'm not on FB or Seed Savers)?

I have not asked on the FB groups that I belong to but I could and see what comes of it. If anyone there had one of John's bean catalogs they would probably have to be old enough to have known about and been a part of Wanigan.

 

[Blue-Jay]

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…..”

That gave me a laugh too. I never knew there was so much material around still that mentioned me. The part about the weak genes from Prof. Meador is a statement from a man that never grew mass bean plots like we do. We all have already seen more bean crosses than some of these professional people ever bred new bean varieties. We know that it does happen and it's not from weak genes. I've stablized at least 5 or six new beans in the last 3 years and they are not hallucinations. They are real.

If you get a kick out of seeing me mentioned in publications you should get Diane Whealy's book which is the history of the Seed Savers Exchange called Gathering - Memoir of a Seed Saver. It's really a great read and I'm in the book three times.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@flowerbug,

Your post 1550 was a great read. I had never seen that before those things that the late Kent Whealy said about his SSE trips in 1981. I still can remember that trip. Kent came to Woodstock where I was living at the time and we drove in my pickup to Tekonsha, Michigan to visit with Ralph Stevenson. I loved seeing that man's garden. He took such great care of it. Kent was a great communicator. He had a way with words. He was an excellent fund raiser for SSE too. He could get grants left and right. He had a degree in journalism from the university of Colorado. It was really an honor to have met and known him.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Bluejay77's Big Bean Show
Day 3 - The Beans That I Grew This Summer​

Bird Egg #2 - Semi runner dry

This bean has been traded in the Seed Savers Exchange membership back in the 1980's. I was probably the instigator in listing the bean in the yearbook as I had gotten the bean from SSE founding member Kent Whealy through his Growers Network program in 1982. Almost 40 years later I have it listed again in the 2022 SSE yearbook. The bean is very productive. Produces lots of small seed in 3.5 to 4 inch pods. Originally just called Bird Egg. Seed Savers eventually changed the name of this bean to be Bird Egg #2 because of all the various bird egg beans that had come into their collections over the years.

Black And White Goose - Pole dry

Another original named bean of mine. Discovering it in the early 1980's as an outcross in my pole bean setion of my garden. It stablized very quickly. Some people have described the bean as a half runner. The bean is also in the bean collections of the Seed Savers Exchange as SSE bean #1963.


Bird Egg #2.........................................................................................Black And White Goose


Black And White Trout - Bush Dry

This bean has been may have been traded around the membership of the Seed Savers Exchange. I got this bean in 2011 from a woman who was a Seed Saver member for only one year. Amy Hawk of Calhan, Colorado. She wanted to collect a bunch of beans she thought she would like then started selling those beans through her online website called "Simply Beans". She retired from that venture within the last two year.

Black Matrix - Pole Lima

This lima is very small and is also part of the outcrossing that created the Andromeda lima. Also Ping Zebra related. This bean showed up this year in 2021. I decided on a name for the bean. Will see in time if it becomes stable.



Black And White Trout..................................................Black Matrix

 

[heirloomgal]

Almost didn't take a photo of this bean because it had such a rough go in a shady spot, but at the last minute changed my mind. It has the potential to be a gorgeous bean, even with the various colours it produces, and I would have liked a whole heap of them instead of a few handfuls for a good photo. Will give it a better spot in 2022.

Coral - pole

 

[flowerbug]

That gave me a laugh too. I never knew there was so much material around still that mentioned me. The part about the weak genes from Prof. Meador is a statement from a man that never grew mass bean plots like we do. We all have already seen more bean crosses than some of these professional people ever bred new bean varieties. We know that it does happen and it's not from weak genes. I've stablized at least 5 or six new beans in the last 3 years and they are not hallucinations. They are real.

yes, i know that too. thank goodness IMO as i really enjoy what happens. perhaps the professor didn't know the difference between small plot gardening with many varieties v.s. large monocrop fields in research? and perhaps also likely in fields that may not have had many native pollinators around.

If you get a kick out of seeing me mentioned in publications you should get Diane Whealy's book which is the history of the Seed Savers Exchange called Gathering - Memoir of a Seed Saver. It's really a great read and I'm in the book three times.

i'll have to add it to my winter reading list and see if i can get it.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Sad news, the last pod on that mystery lima bean I was growing aborted, so it's a no go.

 

[flowerbug]

Sad news, the last pod on that mystery lima bean I was growing aborted, so it's a no go.

no chance of bringing the plant inside and saving it through the winter? lima beans are supposedly perennials if the climate is warm enough. at least all in theory. i've never done it myself...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

no chance of bringing the plant inside and saving it through the winter? lima beans are supposedly perennials if the climate is warm enough. at least all in theory. i've never done it myself...

The plant was ALREADY inside for the winter (it'd have frozen by now if not. And it has no leaves (or leaf buds), it's just a length of stalk now.

I DID however retrieve the half mature embryos from the pod, put them in water, and will try and plant those. It's a long shot (I don't have any of the fancy equipment to do proper embryo rescue)

 

[Blue-Jay]

Bluejay77's Big Bean Show
Day 4 - The Beans That I Grew This Summer
​

Black Trout - Bush Dry

This bean has been listed by 6 people going back to before 1980 in the SSE yearbook myself included. I got the bean originally from the late Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. It may even be an original variety named by him. Very similar to Black And White Trout.

Blooming Prairie - Bush Dry

An orignal named bean from the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota. Introduced through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 2004. I didn't get as rich of color on this bean like I did in 2017. This years grow out was done in an entirely different location and soil.


Black Trout


Blooming Prairie