2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

[Branching Out]

Where did Jack Holloway get the bean? He should remember something about it.

I referenced the list that Jack posted when he offered the seeds, and he indicated the following:
'Bolita, not a bush, dry - Siskiyou Seeds (2022)'

2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

Hello all. I've realized I can't do everything I'd like to do. I bought these to put in the freezer, and to grow over the next few years. That won't be happening, so I'm offering them to you folks. Most of these are an ounce pack, which I could divide in two. A few are 30 or 40 seeds, so might...

www.theeasygarden.com

Here is the Siskiyou listing: https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/products/beans-bolita?_pos=1&_sid=0ef80cfba&_ss=r

Siskiyou says it's a bush, and Jack said 'not a bush'. Wonder if he grew it out, and found the habit to be different than what what indicated in the seed listing.

 

[flowerbug]

I got a bean that I believe is the ultimate toughest to shell that I have ever shelled. They were so hard to shell that I put the pods of this one in a pillow case and worked the pillow case with my foot. I should send you a couple of seeds for you to grow and let you try them out. You can grow them on a fence somewhere. It's a pole bean called Petit Gris.

knowing my luck they would cross with every bean i have.

i went and looked at them and am glad to say that the combination of traits means i would not want to grow those here.

the shape is not round enough if i wanted a round bean, the pole habit i certainly do not want, and having a tough shell, nope, can pass on those completely, have enough of those already meandering around as it is.

the pattern of the seed coat is interesting but i have gotten close to those already via Top Notch and variations that have sprung off that.

 

[flowerbug]

i tried to make a quick video of me shelling out some mixed Adzuki beans, but it didn't quite work. not in focus, not good enough lighting and otherwise unusable, but i learned from the experience so it was not a waste of time either.

i know there is a bunch of stuff on youtube for beans but i thought it would be fun to put a few videos up for hardcore bean sorting fans who could use a fix during the off-season.

i have done so little with videos on my camera that i don't even have my file moving scripts set up to deal with video files so that is the first order of business if i really want to do much video making... someday... but not anytime soon. too many other bricks in the oven right now...

 

[Blue-Jay]

When I woke up Sunday morning and looked at the weather outlook on my phone. There was a frost advisory. Well it didn't happen but certainly if not tonight then tomorrow night when the predicted low is expected to be 33 F (.55 C) I harvested all the bean pods that were left to pick on Sunday even the green one's. Green ones will take 3 or 4 weeks to thoroughly dry. They were swollen with seed and I'm very sure that most of that seed is viable. The growing season is over. Now it's time to take down all the poles. Shred all the spent plants with my lawn mower and till it all under. After all the pods have dried and been shelled it will be photo taking time for all the beans harvested. Then it will be time for my annual Show And Tell.

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm officially housemates with all the remaining poles, and I mean that literally. I tried to pull the bean vines off the poles before bringing them in, which worked for a few, but where that didn't work , we sawed off a few feet from the tree bottoms and brought them in. Livingroom, dining room and entrance are all growing dried beans. I even have one in my room. It all looks very decorative.

 

[heirloomgal]

What a year of miracles. I can't believe it @Bluejay, but I think I'm actually going to be able to harvest all the rest of the pods of the Zugdidi Flat Cake plants. They seemed too green to me when I brought them in, and not even that swollen, but by golly I've been cracking open the indoor dried pods the last 2 days and the seeds are perfect. I would never have believed that could happen, I was focused on getting you your 60 and that's about it at this point. The greatest bean trick I ever learned here was drying bean pods indoors off the vine, even if they're green!

@Artorius I have had the same insane luck with Sastre and probably Facciosa. I've cracked open a few Sastre pods and they seem to have developed really well so far, Facciosa I can only feel the beans inside the pods but they are definitely feeling large and well developed as the pods dehydrate and get thin. So there is hope for these 2! If I can get them to full maturity I'm positive you can because you've got a longer season than I.

And the Bolita and Yessica's Inca beans that @Jack Halloway sent are both - shockingly - going to give me a fair bit of seed. Those 2 were planted way too late, it was an experiment to see what I could get away with really, and it's seems to have worked out. I've had Yessica's inside for 3 days and got my first dried pods today, which were yellowy/green when I pulled the plants up. With fans, a dehumidifier going and the heat on in the house as well things can go pretty fast.

Sastre

Yessica’s Inca

Another one that was iffy, but is finally drying down.
Peinsipps Zweifarbige

 

[Blue-Jay]

What a year of miracles. I can't believe it @Bluejay, but I think I'm actually going to be able to harvest all the rest of the pods of the Zugdidi Flat Cake plants. They seemed too green to me when I brought them in, and not even that swollen, but by golly I've been cracking open the indoor dried pods the last 2 days and the seeds are perfect. I would never have believed that could happen, I was focused on getting you your 60 and that's about it at this point. The greatest bean trick I ever learned here was drying bean pods indoors off the vine, even if they're green!

Yes that drying green pods is really a neat thing isn't it. It's really thrilling when you think you aren't going to wind up with any or very little seed and then you find all those beauties from dried green pods. Oh I'm so happy for you that you are having a great bean year. I've enjoyed your photos. Your beans are just so gorgeous.

 

[heirloomgal]

'Genoll de Crist' aka 'Christ's Knee' - the bean that has been on my wish list for a few years, which gave me a bit of trouble with germination this spring, but did ultimately grow well and produce seed. 3 plants in total. Yay! When I plucked my first dry pod and opened though I thought it was a cross because it looked so unlike the picture from Deaflora. I finally finished shelling all the pods and all the beans look exactly the same? So I went browsing at Bohnen Atlas and my seeds look the same as the ones there; so I'm thinking the bean picture at Deaflora is just of older seeds! Another yay!

 

[Zeedman]

'Genoll de Crist' aka 'Christ's Knee' - the bean that has been on my wish list for a few years, which gave me a bit of trouble with germination this spring, but did ultimately grow well and produce seed. 3 plants in total. Yay! When I plucked my first dry pod and opened though I thought it was a cross because it looked so unlike the picture from Deaflora. I finally finished shelling all the pods and all the beans look exactly the same? So I went browsing at Bohnen Atlas and my seeds look the same as the ones there; so I'm thinking the bean picture at Deaflora is just of older seeds! Another yay!View attachment 61412

Wow, those are pretty beans!

 

[heirloomgal]

Couple little fun bean facts I've come across in the last while. The network bean I grew called Tuvagliedda actually translates from Corsican to 'Napkin'. (And Tovaglietta means placemat, lol). What a name! I took a better picture of those beans today.

The other one is about the beloved bean Fasold. I thought it was an unusual name in that it didn't seem to translate to anything. I did some research since I was really curious about it. It is a family name so it could be named that way. But it also turns out Fasold or Fasolt/Vasolt is a rather famous giant that appears in German Heroic literature, in the German legends known as Thidreksagga and in Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold. Having grown the bean twice I'm betting that it was named after the legendary character of Fasold the Giant. It is a legendary bean! Luckily, the bean isn't hairy.

Tuvagliedda aka 'Napkin'

One outcross in the 4 Tuvagliedda plants. I thought the reversal was different. @Bluejay77 if you want any of the outcrosses from this year, there’s two (Hemelvaartboontje), let me know. I’ll paper wrap it for you with the others. I’m sending back beans from my ‘bonus’ bean varieties that way.