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

[flowerbug]

a picture from the past. a little over 10 years ago after my first grow out of some beans from a bag of mixed soup beans bought at the store for a few $. these were all the varieties of beans and peas that i had back then.

 

[meadow]

a picture from the past. a little over 10 years ago after my first grow out of some beans from a bag of mixed soup beans bought at the store for a few $. these were all the varieties of beans and peas that i had back then.

It would be nice if more people thought outside of the box. I'm thinking when it comes to hard times, with low resources.

Off-topic, but is that knitting I see? Looks like a crochet edge?

 

[flowerbug]

It would be nice if more people thought outside of the box. I'm thinking when it comes to hard times, with low resources.

Off-topic, but is that knitting I see? Looks like a crochet edge?

i did have a few seed rack purchased beans at that time, Top Notch (a wax bush bean) and a Blue Lake (a common green bush bean which promptly gave me a few other out crosses or mutations to play with) and i had also traded with a few people by then too for getting some other beans but those were planted the next seasons along with a bunch of others that i purchased from Vermont Bean Co. 2012 was when i really invited a lot more chaos into my bean collection.

yes, Mom knits every morning and sometimes in the evening too. that is likely a picture of a rug she knit, not crochet, she uses large needles and many strands (up to six) at a time to get these thick rugs made. she doesn't make them any more. these days she's mostly knitting scrubbies and wash cloths. her major efforts in the winter months goes into making lap quilts for vets, hospice and friends who have new babies or just need a quilt. i'd say by now she's probably coming up on 3,000 quilts total - it's amazing what she can do and i'm just here to support her as best i can as long as she wants to do whatever it is she gets in her head... within reason... some things i do have to put my foot down about. haha... hard for her to get fabric at times but she's managing.

 

[saritabee]

@saritabee
If you ever shipped beans to Belgium, I can say that I have some from you. Indirectly. The Bill Wheatly Fall that I showed is one of them. Grape, Cana and Red Speckled Fall await their turn to sow.
Of course, if I put all the puzzles together correctly

I did a trade with a gentleman in Beligum a few years back. It's such a small world!

I laughed so hard when he told me his method of getting beans through customs un-officially; he says: "I think my English is not so good and I accidentally write 'beads' on the form".

I've never had any problems shipping beans overseas and just declaring it straight-out on the customs form; the US seems stricter about incoming bean packages than a lot of other countries are.

But of course if any beans are going to throw a wrench in the works, it's Frost.

 

[saritabee]

I figure I can send some back to @Bluejay77 , and then he can include them in your "official" import box next year?

That way hopefully they won't go missing in customs before they get to you. Since they're cursed. ;D

Let me check how many I have left, and then I'll split them between us. I still want to try again next year; now it's a challenge haha.

Okay, I found three seeds left in the original LEBN envelope, and a bunch from the 2019 growing season.

I usually bag enough blossoms to at least fulfill the LEBN return, but all the bagged ones got used up this year and last year; the 2019 ones are all unbagged. @Artorius , I'll send the three originals as well, but you might keep the two batches slightly separated just in case.

@Bluejay77 , do you know when you will you be mailing Artorius' package? How many beans can you send of a particular variety?

 

[flowerbug]

@Bluejay77 i was just thinking about your issue with not getting some beans returned. i was wondering if you put that as a "wanted" list someplace at the top of the yearly LEBN thread that you'd like any seeds at all of them and perhaps then some people would return them or have them themselves?

in recent times i've taken to returning even partial amounts of seeds to you even for seeds that are not network requests or bonus seeds because if i'm sending something back to you anyways i might as well also send some fresh seeds for those if i have grown them. i just like the idea of replacing what i've used even if it is just the original seed packet amount. so far i have a few notable failures but i think for all but four i've been able to send some seeds back. two i will be replanting again this season and hopefully in better soil and conditions.

looking forwards to the next growing season, the next LEBN thread and hoping we can get some of these lost seeds found again.

 

[meadow]

looking forwards to the next growing season, the next LEBN thread and hoping we can get some of these lost seeds found again.

I'm working really hard to contain my inner 'kid in the back seat', "Are we there yet???" (don't make me pull this car over!)

But saritabee's comment brings a question to mind:

Is it advised to plant only a portion of the Network beans? Perhaps as insurance against disaster? Or maybe plant a portion and then the rest a little bit later?

 

[flowerbug]

in the past @Bluejay77 sent me a single last seed he had of Red Bollito, a pole bean which i hoped would grow but it never sprouted where i planted it. so at least in that case there was no way to plant only a portion. i hated that it failed but it was planted as safely as any bean gets around here (with a fine wire mesh fence around it to prevent the chipmunks from getting at it).

often i have planted all but one or a few seeds depending upon how many i had to work with and how much space. i think if sent the last sample of something it would be good to know so you know how carefully to treat them. sometimes i keep just one seed because i want to be sure i know what it looks like.

right now i have small populations of seeds for growing Monteville, Shelleasy x Soldier and Fort Portal Jade but they are all likely to be still available because i did send some seeds back of Monteville and i do have enough to keep trying until they grow. i just don't get great quality seeds from them (at least not as of yet). last year was such a crazy weather season, but what really surprised me about the Shelleasy x Soldier beans was that the plants were large, beautiful growth in the early season, by far the largest plants i had growing in that cohort of plantings. still by the end of the season the pods had beans that weren't that great quality. i don't think i sent any back to Russ, but he also mentioned he had plenty still from his original source and those were some beautiful beans. i really hated to even plant them they were so nice.

i've also given up on Hidatsa Shield Figure beans because while i may have some outcrosses from them in my collection now i've not yet been able to get the original beans to come back in the size and shape they were when i planted them and also they are semi-runner to pole beans and that keeps getting me away from my goals of having mostly bush beans and the once in a while semi-runner but not a lot of pole beans. i just don't want to get those pole growth habit genes spread around into the rest of the many beans i grow as it is already chaotic enough around here. i'm not worried that Hidatsa Shield Figure beans will be hard to come by. i think i did send some back to Russ anyways since i did have a few, then at least i could replace the seeds he sent to me.

 

[meadow]

hmmm. I have a pretty good supply of each one, and don't think they are last samples:

Walcherse Bruine Kogel - 17 seeds, 2019
Marfax - 16 seeds, year? [site shows grown 2016, 2017]
Swedish Brown - 12 seeds, 2018

They are going into Garden #1, which is elevated from the surrounding ground, and quackgrass has been eradicated.

Production beans and 1-2 seed-saving pole beans will be in Garden #2 (90% quackgrass-free), which is separated from Garden #1 by a lot of space, an outbuilding, and a couple of plum trees. And one seed-saving pole bean will go in the flowerbed in front of the house (gardens #1 and #2 are in the 'backyard').

 

[Artorius]

I am slowly finishing documenting my last year's harvest. There are only a few varieties left to be photographed.

Kilham Goose - semi runner


Beefy Resilient Grex - semi runner


Alice Sunshine - bush


Schwarze Kugel - semi runner


Tarahumara Bakamina - half runner. Last year, this bean grew and yielded very well. A nice surprise considering its torments in 2020. I sowed the best seeds I had harvested, but there were not many of them.