2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[capsicumguy]

So! I think I'm close to choosing which beans I want to grow out this year; do we coordinate in this thread so there's good coverage of the at-risk ones or do we just email @Bluejay77 privately?

 

[Zeedman]

SSE must be having some employment problems. I ordered 1 heirloom tomato from their catalog on jan 17 and it hasnt shipped yet. I also want to purchase a print edition of the 2022 exchange book/catalog of offerings, the page says check back mid January still. In the meantime i have ordered and recieved seed from 3 other seed companies. I just like reading through the booklet and marking the items of interest vs their webpage.

From the commercial full-color catalog, or from the online Exchange? For the Exchange, such a wait is not unusual, especially given that the Yearbook has just come out, and they are probably busy as "hay" right now. I already have 5 requests, and they have 30 times more offerings than I do... so do the math. It will only get busier from here on out. They used to state that Heritage Farm seed requests would be filled twice a month during the busy season; but this is from their 2022 Yearbook entry:

Heritage Farm accepts and fills requests year round, but can take a few weeks to fill. We have 1 employee who fills orders, which can take a week or two depending upon the amount of requests received and the time of year.

The Yearbook exchanges are completely separate from SSE's commercial catalog operation, which under normal conditions, should have a faster response. Between Covid & the greatly increased interest in gardening, things are far from normal right now. From the SSE home page:

Due to high order volume, we are currently experiencing shipping delays of 1—2½ weeks. Your order will be processed in the order it was received. We appreciate your business and your patience.

It stinks I know, but with everything garden in high demand right now, quick fulfillment is the exception rather than the rule... so hang in there. It's a good thing you ordered early, because seeds will likely run out early again this year.

I don't know that's going on with the print Yearbook, but my guess would be that they won't take any new book orders until all of those on the auto-ship list have been sent. If you list seeds in the Exchange, you get placed on the auto-ship list.

 

[Zeedman]

Thank you @meadow @Zeedman

SSE is quite different it seems than SoDC. I didn't know that you send your things to them. It's not that you list with them, or just list with them I guess, you actually send them your seeds, right?

If so, wow, that is an ambitious organisation. I can't imagine how hard that would be to maintain any variety that gets donated. That would be A LOT of seeds to grow. And then to think of all the overlap.

It's a little more complicated. Members only send seeds to SSE if they request some. As a rule, members list their available seeds in SSE (both online, and in the annual print Yearbook) then take requests & ship their own seeds directly. SSE itself is not involved in those exchanges. Where it perhaps differs from SoDC is that SSE as a non-profit organization grows their own backups for many varieties, and maintains them in their seed bank - if the variety meets their Accessions Policy. With limited exceptions, they only list their seed in the Exchange if no other member is offering that variety for the current year. Since many of those who originally donated to their seed bank no longer offer seeds, the number of varieties SSE offers as a lister has steadily increased (to 5059 listings this year).

It is admittedly a huge undertaking for SSE to grow & maintain 20,000+ varieties, only a percentage of which can be grown each year for renewal. To add to that, in an effort to ensure that seed being offered by them (and stored off-site) is true-to-type, a seed crop is often grown again for evaluation, before the seed is released for the Yearbook. That evaluation grow out is not necessarily in the year following the seed crop. I confess that system has occasionally been a source of frustration for me, when I observe a variety which interests me while visiting Heritage Farm, and am waiting for that seed to be offered. And waiting. And... Regardless, I have only the highest respect for the preservation staff, which gets a difficult task done each year, and has often bent over backwards to be helpful.

SoDC does not, I believe, grow any seed as an organization. But as a member, do you send any seed in to them, to be held as backup? Is any seed offered by SoDC itself (perhaps for regeneration) or only my its members?

 

[Artorius]

I was disappointed in the look of those Worcester beans I had told you about, I thought they'd be a prettier pale beige, but they just look really boring! Kind of like Arikara, no real colour or character to speak of.

Never mind! For example I keep saying that white beans are boring and suddenly it turns out that I have a dozen new varieties again They just attract me like a magnet. Recently, I was attracted by more from the Basque Country, Germany and France.

 

[flowerbug]

Never mind! For example I keep saying that white beans are boring and suddenly it turns out that I have a dozen new varieties again They just attract me like a magnet. Recently, I was attracted by more from the Basque Country, Germany and France.

this dratted pond between us! otherwise i could send you about 20 various patterned mostly white beans. most of them have come from grow outs of a bean i called Yellow Soldier but most times i've planted it i do not get YS back - i may not even have any YS left, but i've not completely gone through all the white bean boxes and containers yet. there are some other white patterned bean lines i've done some grow outs with that were interesting to me but not any longer. very nice beans.

Pheasant and Spotted Pheasant are both from those but i can never be sure who the parents might be. Yellow Eye is grown here often and Top Notch so between those two i do have a fair amount of white patterns showing up and then the white ends from Painted Pony and Appaloosa show up too. Pheasant is a very nice looking bean and is the only one i've worked on getting it more stable. Spotted Pheasant came from Pheasant grow out. i personally have very little interest in white beans. @Bluejay77 has more of a preference for those than i do.

 

[Boilergardener]

Yes the commercial catalog, i am surprised it is that slow, I have only ordered from the exchange part 1 time so far and the person was very fast in shipping. No problems at all with either SSE catalog or the online exchange. I was just surprised that they were up to 2.5 weeks out when a few other seed companies shipped fairly quickly this january.

From the commercial full-color catalog, or from the online Exchange? For the Exchange, such a wait is not unusual, especially given that the Yearbook has just come out, and they are probably busy as "hay" right now. I already have 5 requests, and they have 30 times more offerings than I do... so do the math. It will only get busier from here on out. They used to state that Heritage Farm seed requests would be filled twice a month during the busy season; but this is from their 2022 Yearbook entry:


The Yearbook exchanges are completely separate from SSE's commercial catalog operation, which under normal conditions, should have a faster response. Between Covid & the greatly increased interest in gardening, things are far from normal right now. From the SSE home page:

It stinks I know, but with everything garden in high demand right now, quick fulfillment is the exception rather than the rule... so hang in there. It's a good thing you ordered early, because seeds will likely run out early again this year.

I don't know that's going on with the print Yearbook, but my guess would be that they won't take any new book orders until all of those on the auto-ship list have been sent. If you list seeds in the Exchange, you get placed on the auto-ship list.

 

[flowerbug]

So! I think I'm close to choosing which beans I want to grow out this year; do we coordinate in this thread so there's good coverage of the at-risk ones or do we just email @Bluejay77 privately?

there is only one on the list i'm interested in and i suspect it is similar to what i'm already growing: Baby Green Lima. i think this one is also called other names and might be pretty common (search for Henderson's). i'll take it if someone else doesn't want to grow it.

a few others i've commented upon, but don't plan on growing them, especially if others can because i've not had great results from them and perhaps someone else has better conditions for those than i do.

 

[flowerbug]

Thank you @meadow @Zeedman

SSE is quite different it seems than SoDC. I didn't know that you send your things to them. It's not that you list with them, or just list with them I guess, you actually send them your seeds, right?

If so, wow, that is an ambitious organisation. I can't imagine how hard that would be to maintain any variety that gets donated. That would be A LOT of seeds to grow. And then to think of all the overlap.

SoDC?

 

[capsicumguy]

SoDC?

Seeds of Diversity Canada, basically our SSE.

 

[meadow]

So! I think I'm close to choosing which beans I want to grow out this year; do we coordinate in this thread so there's good coverage of the at-risk ones or do we just email @Bluejay77 privately?

I doubt that it really matters, but we'd all love to know what you've chosen! (well, at least I would!