I guess with all heirloom varieties, we're cupping our hands over the plants at a point of expression that we like, that we want to hold on to. But they are always shifting away from our cupped hands incrementally. We pull them back again and again to get them to stay put, but nature persists. Maybe that's what happened with this mysterious bean that seems to go by all those names, Calypso, Orca, Free Willy, Yin Yang, and has those variations in appearance?i'm going from what i've grown, but also looking at what images show up when searched for on-line. so far, the only image i'm coming across for variations in the first pages are "Black Calypso Bean Seeds" which look like what were posted above. imo they are not Calypso, Orca or Yin Yang beans but something else sharing the same name and confusing things.
of course, someone may have crossed or selected these or it could be a second naming which is fine with me, but i'd still call them something else.
who has precedence?first naming in historical sources available and then if there is an actual serious issue genetic sequencing could probably figure out who was first.
to me the above pictures look like a cross that came from Anasazi or some other similar patterned SW USoA bean.
foodsubs.com
You probably have a lot more experience than me @flowerbug with seed companies and these kinds of things. In Canada we really have very few seed companies, relative to our population size. There are one or two large outfits (which sells mostly hybrid seeds of various kinds), but heirloom beans are mostly sold by a handful of mom and pop companies that just really love heirloom/heritage seeds. My experience with them is that they are quite conscientious about varietal characteristics and history etc. But this is a very small handful of businesses compared to the thousands in the US, and I've never dealt with US seed companies.while it may be possible, i'd just say it's a misclassification unless the seller has more in-depth provenance/history. i've seen enough mistakes, wishful thinking and outright made up stories to make a sale that it wouldn't really surprise me.
i'd not pass that bean on as Calypso.
when i first started out bean collecting this link really helped me and it seemed pretty well researched:
FoodSubs: Dry Beans: Ingredient Substitutions and Ingredient Synonyms
Includes ingredient substitutions and ingredient synonyms for Dry Beans.
then i found a few others including @Bluejay77 's website and then TEG. certainly i'd trust Russ and @Zeedman's knowledge above my own when it comes down to many things bean.
one thing i do here is when i get a new bean i keep a sample of it so i always have that for a comparison and reference so that if i start seeing pattern/color/etc changes then i can catch it.
www.themountaineagle.com
Does anyone grow beans from the Appalachian area? I have several in my collection and thinking of getting a few more. One that I’ve been looking at is called Big John.
Big John Beans originated here - The Mountain Eagle
Bill Best, who helped organize the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center, Inc. in Berea, wrote in the January 1998 Appalachian Heritage Magazine that Big John Beans originated in Letcher County. (The article has been reprinted with his permission on the website...
early christmas.
). once i'd had enough years of growing it that it was fairly stable i gave it the name Sunset. there is a Sunset runner bean and another with the word sunset in the name, but it is a white soldier bean so no danger of confusion there. Sunset describes the color of the bean perfectly (a fairly dark orange color with red hints along the edges).
