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

[Artorius]

@Triffid
If I understand what I read on the Bohnen Atlas website, there are two variants of Kaiser Friedrich bean in circulation. Bean with speckled pods is the original, the one with red pods is later variant. Do you have the second one?

 

[Triffid]

I'm not entirely sure, because I've seen pods on the vines that are green with pink blush and pods that have striping as they age. Perhaps they will all age to have striping, in which case I have the original variant (?)
I certainly don't have anything that resembles the bright magenta/red pods seen in some photos. It's odd because I would have thought the red blush on yellow pods fit the 19th catalogue descriptions more than the striped pods.

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal
My Gout... pods were the same as yours. Some of the fresh ones had a strong red bloom, but I think that was the effect of the soil in which they grew. The seeds are also the same. I have looked at some internet sites with photos of the seeds of this bean and everywhere you see this lavender color to a greater or lesser extent.
In my opinion, the Gout... and Kaiser Friedrich pods are different from each other. Look at their endings and the shape and thickness of the spike.

Good eye @Artorius. I never noticed that.

 

[flowerbug]

i wasn't planning on sorting beans today, but i was wandering around my room and thinking of what to do and i decided to see how much i could get done. the first flat top went well enough so i did the 2nd, and then the 3rd and was halfway through the 4th when Mom came home. took a few minute break and then finished that one up too. so pretty much all the beans that i had shelled out the past few weeks all were sorted today. this is only the first sort, i will go through them again one more time after they have dried down for a few more weeks because that catches any that still have enough moisture in them to feed any mold and they'll grow a little more while they keep drying down.

my earlier estimate of 70lbs of dry beans is going to be off maybe by half. the bags sure felt heavy yet they are not going to give me 10lbs per bag. i just weighed all that i have done in the bulk bean flats and the total comes to about 16lbs (9lbs of that is Yellow Eyes so that was a nice harvest of those). this doesn't include all the odds and end beans and project beans i have sitting around drying nor does it include more beans i have yet to shell out - but i know that a fair number of those aren't actually going to be good quality so much of them may end up getting culled out and fed to the worms. won't know until i get them done - yes, i hope for better but i won't get my hopes up.

there are still pods out there that are green and i'll get them picked when they get filled and dry enough to bring in. anything i missed this past week in picking will be spoiled by all these rains but there should be something yet of the Lima beans and a few others that i can eventually harvest. the Lima beans i'll go through as soon as i can get to them to have some shellies as we both like eating those.

 

[flowerbug]

i'll be moving some dirt between gardens this fall and next spring as i can get to it. the great soil in the north garden has a ton of extra organic matter in it that the large garden inside the fenced garden can use and the north garden can use more sandy soil too so to swap some dirt should help both of those gardens out and give me better beans in both. at least that is the plan.

 

[heirloomgal]

@Bluejay77 when I was selecting network pole beans for this year I was looking for a few qualities, but especially production. I got lucky in my selections! Most of them have been super good producers A couple have been crazy good

 

[BeanWonderin]

We took advantage of a break in the weather today to collect any dry pods before the rain picks up again. This damp autumn is quite a contrast to our dry summer here.

We harvested almost all of our main dry bean crop, Tongues of Fire, and a bit of Hutterite but it's still not quite ready. Interestingly, Hutterite was clearly the earliest to pop up this spring. We'll save those to dry in the pod and shell out this winter.

Everyone in our family picked out a special bean to grow this year and six of those were mostly ready for harvest. We shelled those tonight.

Giele Waldbeantsje

Red Marbles

Fort Portal Jade

Dapple Gray

Pale Gray Lavender

 

[BeanWonderin]

Viola

After all the beans are harvested I'll tabulate yields, but the Viola seems to be a frontrunner in terms of production and early maturity.

 

[flowerbug]

those all look great @BeanWonderin no frosts up there yet?

 

[flowerbug]

i cooked a large pot of beans yesterday mixing three different varieties: Huey, Red Ryder and Purple Dove. i thought that Huey would take the longest to cook so i started with those and then after an hour added the Red Ryder and then after another hour i added the Purple Dove. i was thinking that the Huey were more like one of the parent beans than the other (the Tan Goats Eye selection which does take longer to cook), but it actually didn't take that long to cook them after all, they were more like the Red Ryder beans so i could have been done in 2-2&1/2 hrs instead of longer.

yummy results. we put eight quarts in the freezer for later use and have some in the fridge for giving to my brother and we've already eaten the rest. i did want some more beans to eat this week so i decided to make another smaller pot of beans this morning. i have so many Purple Dove beans that i'll do them but first start with Yellow Eye and give them an hour before adding the Purple Dove. we'll see if this timing works out.