2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

jbosmith

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I've mostly given up on limas. I like favas in the same place.

MN-150 cowpeas from @Zeedman have reignited my interest in vignas. I had maybe 50-60% of pods ripen by mid September and I think the rest may have been a second flush of pods because they weren't even close. They made excellent green beans though and I plan to grow them again next year with that in mind.
🙄Some beany thoughts this evening 🙄

Lima beans. Should I ever grow them again? This year would be my 4th try. And the results were meager, just like ever other time. Jackson Wonder, Christmas and Ping. None produced enough to make the space they took up worthwhile. I've heard it all when it comes to these limas; a friend down south says her season is too short, another friend down south says they do great for her, another friend way North says her summers are too hot for them to prosper.

:hu

Cowpeas, two tries, modest results as well. I wonder how many trials does a variety require before you can really say I gave it a shot. I can't complain, but my production was down this year compared to last year. I think I need to not be so quick to stick plants & seeds in the ground in late May. It can actually work against me. Gonna need self discipline to not fall for that late May reliable hot spell next year.

BUT I did some counting tonight and saw that I added 81 new varieties of beans to my collection this year! It isn't tons of seed for each, but it's a start! Now I'm curious to see how many I have altogether!
 

heirloomgal

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I've mostly given up on limas. I like favas in the same place.

MN-150 cowpeas from @Zeedman have reignited my interest in vignas. I had maybe 50-60% of pods ripen by mid September and I think the rest may have been a second flush of pods because they weren't even close. They made excellent green beans though and I plan to grow them again next year with that in mind.
Do you ever get aphids on the favas?
 

jbosmith

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heirloomgal

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These recipes remind me of the 'canned beans' in Quebec grocery stores, many of which have straight up pork fat listed as an ingredient.
When I flipped through the booklet, I thought..this feels like my childhood. It was! I was 5 then, and all the mothers cooked from the same recipe books.
 

Jack Holloway

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When I flipped through the booklet, I thought..this feels like my childhood. It was! I was 5 then, and all the mothers cooked from the same recipe books.
Well, the booklet is from Canada, so most likely you ate something cooked from it. On the archive site there is another booklet from the US, wartime I think. If you want to browse the books there, here is the link Internet Archive cookbooks. Some of the books are out of copyright, or have never had any in the US, so you can download a copy of the book. Others, if you join the Internet Archive, you can check them out as a library book. Of course, book publishers are suing them over this. I'll save my rant about this for other forums.
 

Zeedman

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Lima beans. Should I ever grow them again? This year would be my 4th try. And the results were meager, just like ever other time. Jackson Wonder, Christmas and Ping. None produced enough to make the space they took up worthwhile. I've heard it all when it comes to these limas; a friend down south says her season is too short, another friend down south says they do great for her, another friend way North says her summers are too hot for them to prosper.

:hu
You might have better luck with different varieties. "Sieva" (a.k.a. "Carolina") is a short-season pole lima. It is the only pole lima I can direct seed with a reasonable chance of success. Started as transplants, it might make it in your climate... and in my garden, it tolerated cool weather. Small white seeds in huge numbers. "Henderson" bush lima is another short-season lima. I grow a black-seeded bush lima, "Cave Dweller Black", which had a DTM of 82 days here.
Cowpeas, two tries, modest results as well. I wonder how many trials does a variety require before you can really say I gave it a shot. I can't complain, but my production was down this year compared to last year. I think I need to not be so quick to stick plants & seeds in the ground in late May. It can actually work against me. Gonna need self discipline to not fall for that late May reliable hot spell next year.
@heirloomgal , I can't remember if I sent you the two Minnesota varieties? "MN 13" and "MN 150" should both mature where you are. Both are true bush habit, so they don't waste time or energy growing vines. I used to grow an heirloom, "Fagiolino Dolico Veneto", that was a black eyed pea with a very short DTM... but so many other SSE members were growing it, I bumped it down in priority, and haven't grown it since 2012. :( Not sure I'll ever get back to it now. I'll do a germination test, and could send you some seed if good... if not, its into the bean pot.
 
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