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

[Blue-Jay]

Do you always find fun new varieties at that swap @Bluejay77? I noticed last time I was pressing my face against *the window*, there were some new goodies on display that I've never seen before. Looks like you switch it up every year? Take some out and put some others in?

There are new beans that I don't have to be found at the swaps all the time. However I'm so busy at my table selling what I have brought that I usually don't walk around looking for anything at other vendors tables. When I'm at my table someone attending the swap will usually offer me something that I might not have. Then I tell them to take something in trade off my table.

I also have fun seeing all the other vendors I have come to know at all the swaps. Friday evening around 6:00 pm we will all get together in a group at one of the local a restaurants for dinner and have some gabfest time. Then if a lot of us are staying at the same motel we might continue the gabfest in the lobby until about 10 pm. Sometimes there can be our own little private seed swap going on there before the real swap begins on Saturday morning at 9 am.

When it comes to my bean window pages A-Z. If I have grown something different that hasn't been on those pages before. I will take something that is marked sold out and slip in something different. I think those pages look better the less sold out signs there are on those pages. This year I was able to revive a few of those sold outs with a fairly decent new crop of seed of them. I also added another page to the Network if you have noticed from 10 to 11.

 

[heirloomgal]

There are new beans that I don't have to be found at the swaps all the time. However I'm so busy at my table selling what I have brought that I usually don't walk around looking for anything at other vendors tables. When I'm at my table someone attending the swap will usually offer me something that I might not have. Then I tell them to take something in trade off my table.

I also have fun seeing all the other vendors I have come to know at all the swaps. Friday evening around 6:00 pm we will all get together in a group at one of the local a restaurants for dinner and have some gabfest time. Then if a lot of us are staying at the same motel we might continue the gabfest in the lobby until about 10 pm. Sometimes there can be our own little private seed swap going on there before the real swap begins on Saturday morning at 9 am.

When it comes to my bean window pages A-Z. If I have grown something different that hasn't been on those pages before. I will take something that is marked sold out and slip in something different. I think those pages look better the less sold out signs there are on those pages. This year I was able to revive a few of those sold outs with a fairly decent new crop of seed of them. I also added another page to the Network if you have noticed from 10 to 11.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[heirloomgal]

Does anyone know what this bean's name means: Dlouha Pulena Ze Smolijanu.

So far, what google suggests is 'a long pullen from a Smolijan'. Googled pullen and that seems to mean chicken. Can that be right? Something seems off to me about this translation.

 

[flowerbug]

Does anyone know what this bean's name means: Dlouha Pulena Ze Smolijanu.

So far, what google suggests is 'a long pullen from a Smolijan'. Googled pullen and that seems to mean chicken. Can that be right? Something seems off to me about this translation.

using Czech translator and changing word to Polena it comes up as "Long logs from Smolijan" one person on seedsaver exchange suggested that Pulena could have been a typo.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Nobuko, my housemate, and I talk food a lot! Most of the bean topics (and there are many) involve soybeans. Adzuki beans, in the form of a sweet paste is also very common. It seems beans are included in every meal and snack in Japan. No wonder their life expectancy is so far ahead of the US. The discussion will continue.

I grow quite a few azuki types (though I specialize in the much more obscure types that are NOT red and so are not well suited to making an.)

And, while you can't eat them, I have discovered that wild soybeans (Glycine soja, as opposed to G. max.) grew well for me. Domestic have a somewhat harder time here.

I've played around with growing several Japanese vegetables and fruits, but most either didn't do well for me, or I am still looking for rumored varieties I haven't found yet (like they legendary ume plum that is sweet enough you don't HAVE to pickle it to consume it.) I do have a lot of Japanese citrus trees, however, (I had a lot of yuzus, I still have a sudachi, and I have a pot of shiwukasas (Okinawan specialty.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Possibly the last bean pic for 2024. @Zeedman i‘m pretty happy with how well Canon City did, 4 plants. I had to dry half the pods indoors, so it’s late for me, but it still did pretty good. I’ve looked for this bean on the internet for more info, no luck. Do you know it’s history?

 

[flowerbug]

Possibly the last bean pic for 2024.

? time warp?

 

[Blue-Jay]

I’ve looked for this bean on the internet for more info, no luck. Do you know it’s history?

Yes we do know something about this bean. There was a wonderful bean collector in Canon City, Colorado named Burt Berrier. He was actually a farm implement salesmen who traveled and visited farms all over the western U.S. He collected beans from his travels. Burt passed away in 1978 and his wife Maude sent his collection to the USDA, probably the seed bank in Fort Collins, Colorado. John Withee the other great bean collector from Lynnfield, Massachusetts and refered to as "The Bean Man" got a hold of samples of either all of Burts collection or some of it. The bean was given to Seed Savers Exchange when SSE acquired Withee's Wanigan bean collection. John Withee had named this bean after the home of Burt Berrier which was also the location of Burt's bean patch.

 

[Zeedman]

Possibly the last bean pic for 2024. @Zeedman i‘m pretty happy with how well Canon City did, 4 plants. I had to dry half the pods indoors, so it’s late for me,

Wow, I didn't realize it was that late when grown in Canada... or that I had slept through 2023.

@Bluejay77 beat me to it. But I never caught the connection with Burt Berrier, who I believe was also the source for the "Berrier's #2" lima that I grew this year. Nor did I catch the reference to Burt stating that it was from Portugal, as mentioned by SSE in the 2020 Yearbook. I previously grew (and later dropped) another large shelly named "Portugal", expressly because it was virtually indistinguishable from "Canon City". Thanks @Bluejay77 for helping me to solve a mystery.

@heirloomgal , I'm glad it did so well for you. For me, "Canon City" has slightly smaller beans, and is about 10 days earlier, than the very similar "Bird Egg #3".

 

[Zeedman]

Greetings, bean growers! I'm in mid-Michigan, and looking forward to next season already.

I wonder if anyone has experience with a bean called Hana Mame, or Flower Bean. My temporary housemate is Japanese, and describes these very large pole beans (1-2 inches wide), eaten as a sweet dessert after cooking with sugar. They are grown at elevation in Japan, because they require somewhat cool growing conditions. I've ordered seed from a company in the US that emphasizes Japanese varieties (Kitazawa). It's a highly sought after delicacy in Japan. I was surprised to have difficulty finding a seed source. Phaseolus vulgaris, also known as ingenmame, or Giant Runner Bean.

The Kitazawa seed I have on order is called Akahana Mame, and I'm hoping it's the same as Hana Mame. The description of use is the same as my housemate reports.

I was reviewing this thread, and dug a little deeper. The 'aka' prefix in Japanese refers to red flowers (and purple or black beans); 'shiro' refers to white flowers (and white beans). Despite Kitazawa's description, the red-flowered trait identifies "Akahana Mame" as Phaseolus coccineus. In my experience, the red-flowered runner beans tend to be fatter, as opposed to the more flattened white-flowered runner beans. I have also noted that red flowered, black-seeded runner beans tend to be sweeter in flavor than the purple. There is a widely circulated heirloom runner bean, "Insuk's Wang Kong", that was grown for use as shellies. Trials by many in the U.S. have shown it to be more heat-resistant than many runner beans. The beans are either purple & black, or all black.

BTW, as someone who collects & grows many Asian beans (including adzuki, mung, hyacinth beans, 60+ soybeans, and many Asian long beans) as well as several edible gourds, I hope you will continue to share your housemate's wisdom & experiences. I suspect we would have many wonderful culinary conversations over the back fence.