- Thread starter
- #641
Blue-Jay
Garden Master
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2013
- Messages
- 3,300
- Reaction score
- 10,256
- Points
- 333
- Location
- Woodstock, Illinois Zone 5
The Frost beans has been a trying odyssey. I had ordered them from a SSE member in Montana in 2018 who said they are a pre 1796 variety and his first seed arrived beautifully in a bubble pack envelope that year. I sent them out to a number of growers and most of them I never heard back from them. One grower said the beans didn't germinate. In 2020 I sent out the last sample I had of them to a fellow in California and in the fall I finally got back a packet of beautiful seeds that were larger than the original I had sent him. I don't remember when I sent them to Saratabee. Those beautiful large seeds would be sent out again in 2021. Some of the 2021 requests came in late 2020 and through the winter of 2021. Lots of requests for them and I needed more of them so I ordered them again from the fellow in Montana who was the only member in SSE listing the bean. When his seeds arrived he had sent them in a letter envelope and most of the seeds had squirted out one of the seams of the envelope when the postal service ran the envelope through canceling and sorting machines. The remainder of his seeds in the envelope were crushed. The only Network grower to have returned seed of Frost in 2021 had grown them right next to Aunt Jeans that he also requested to grow. At the time I thought nothing of sending out two similar look a like beans to a grower. The two beans have the same colors and pattern. He reported that the vines of each had grown together just a little bit but he was certain he could separate the one's that were Aunt Jeans and which one's were Frost. I had told him not to send the seed back that I really couldn't trust that the seed could be accurately distinguished from each other. He sent a full packet of each anyway. Must have been over 120 plus beans in each packet and when looking at each of his packets. I couldn't tell the difference between them. Unfortunately they became soup material. So I think Saratabee and Artorious together will be the final saviors of this beans strange journey. I think I will hang on to all the seed I receive from Artorious and grow a crop of them myself next year before any Network growers get a hold of them again. The sign under the photo on the website will remain "All Seed Is Out To Grower" until I have a really good and bountiful crop of Frost.