2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

heirloomgal · Oct 27, 2022

How funny! She probably did get them from you! :lol:

What a small world indeed! And yes, Ugra Saja, that's the other one!! 2216/2218 is one, Ugra Saja!the other!

Can us bean collectors and seed savers be so small a group!? By the time my email trade exchanges with her ended in May, it turned out we had 4 different mutual seed aquaintances. In fact, she went out for coffee one day with a friend (whom I don't know) and the friend was talking about these new beans she had just got. My seed friend asked her where'd you get them? And of course, because life can be a comedy, she says my name! My seed friend was surprised at another odd point of contact we had! I had just mailed that lady beans - she had requested them from me in the seed exchange. Funny coincidence.

Pulsegleaner · Oct 27, 2022

The really weird feeling for me is those rare occasions when, due to odd circumstances, I find myself in direct communication with the "greats", the really famous names in our field. It's even weirder when they are directly interested in what I am doing. I'm used to thinking of these people like people thing of celebrities, or the top professionals in you business, high and mighty entities too important to interact with us little people directly. To have one of them converse with me is sort of like sending a letter to the President and getting a response back HE actually wrote himself (as opposed to his secretary, or a basic form letter).

Back on my first forum, I wound up in direct communication with Carol Deppe, who actually seemed to be interested in my miniature non-popcorn project. And while I have never conversed directly with Joe Simcox, I have with his daughter, who thought the little anecdote I told her (about having encountered the cucurbit Kemarogan LONG before I got it from them, in the form of a few seeds I had found in my searches.) was worth passing on to him.

heirloomgal · Oct 27, 2022

I know exactly what you mean @Pulsegleaner!

This spring I actually got a seed request from BILL MINKEY. OMG. When I pulled his letter out of my mailbox and read the name... I think I nearly fainted. If I could have reached for ether I would have.

flowerbug · Oct 28, 2022

heirloomgal said:
A bean sent to me this spring. Anyone grow it?
View attachment 53009 View attachment 53010

not specifically that bean, but amazingly through the years i've grown many white beans with different patterns that appear in pictures posted here. the've come about from various wax beans (starting with Top Notch) that i've trialed and then gotten "odd" ones in the harvest that i've set aside and replanted at times to see if they were stable.
Pheasant, Spotted Pheasant, Two Spot and some others came from those.

none of them have been pole beans yet, but several are semi-runners.

flowerbug · Oct 28, 2022

both @Bluejay77 and @Zeedman are respected by me for all they've done and still accomplish, @Pulsegleaner is very eclectic in his efforts, and @heirloomgal is super active. @Artorius and the other overseas collectors are great to have too.

Blue-Jay · Oct 28, 2022

heirloomgal said:
A bean sent to me this spring. Anyone grow it?

I decided to Google this bean and get several links to the garden website Houzz. Looks like a pole bean from Italy that perhaps one of our LEBN people Annette Barley might have gotten started in Canada. Annette lives in Nanaimo, BC on Victoria Island.

Zeedman · Oct 28, 2022

heirloomgal said:
How funny! She probably did get them from you! What a small world indeed! And yes, Ugra Saja, that's the other one!! 2216/2218 is one, Ugra Saja!the other!

Can us bean collectors and seed savers be so small a group!? By the time my email trade exchanges with her ended in May, it turned out we had 4 different mutual seed aquaintances. In fact, she went out for coffee one day with a friend (whom I don't know) and the friend was talking about these new beans she had just got. My seed friend asked her where'd you get them? And of course, because life can be a comedy, she says my name! My seed friend was surprised at another odd point of contact we had! I had just mailed that lady beans - she had requested them from me in the seed exchange. Funny coincidence.

It can be interesting indeed. I often find that people who I only know online by their screen names, turn out to know me from my presence in SSE (or vice versa) with the connection only being realized in the course of conversation. The same can be said of people that I might know from one garden forum, who use different screen names cross-platform. It might only come up later... "hey, I think I know you - didn't we do an exchange years ago?".

Seed savers are a relatively small community; and those who have stuck with it over the years are even fewer. Many seed savers & collectors only communicate on one or two platforms - but those who are active eventually encounter one another. There are quite a few here who I first met on other forums; some with the same screen name, some not. Personally, to preserve relationships from one forum to another, I always use the same screen name. I ordered seed from an SSE member's online portal last year, and in the course of conversation, it turned that she & I had previously swapped seed online, with neither of us recognizing each other under our real identities. :lol:

I'm very happy to see such a large number of enthusiastic seed savers on this forum, and to see many long-time online gardening friends here (and to make new ones). And I love hearing from all of the international members who post here! :hugs

It is a rare & precious thing to find such a great collection of like minds, shared experiences, and pleasant conversation. TEG is a great place to exchange seeds & ideas, and a pleasant place to dream during the cold months.

heirloomgal · Oct 28, 2022

flowerbug said:
both @Bluejay77 and @Zeedman are respected by me for all they've done and still accomplish, @Pulsegleaner is very eclectic in his efforts, and @heirloomgal is super active. @Artorius and the other overseas collectors are great to have too.

@Bluejay77 @Zeedman @Artorius all are big time seed saving heroes to me!

but I don't wanna fangirl on them too hard or they might think I'm a weirdo

@Pulsegleaner is so brave too with all the exotics he has the courage to try!

flowerbug · Oct 30, 2022

the pods from the Victoria Brown Eyes were shelled and sorted and i have a nice and unexpected harvest from those.

they were planted late but we had such a late season they had enough time to develop seeds. with all the later rains i was wondering if they were going to be rotting, but they were in good condtion. the VBEs do have a more upright posture and thick pods and i only picked the pods that were really clean. when i get back to that garden for putting it up i'll pull any pods that look possible and bring those in too since it would be nice to have more of those seeds to give away.