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

[capsicumguy]

May I ask what beans are in your photo? They're so lovely!!

Thanks so much for asking! I love geeking out about this stuff. Here's the same photo with legends.

(Not pictured because they haven't been shelled: Gigantes, Dean Family Greasy Cutshort, Bantu in the proper colours (it's supposed to be a variety of pinks, purples, blues, reds, and yellows, but it throws a lot of boring putty-coloured ones), Turkey Craw, and a lot more of some of the varieties you see here)

 

[heirloomgal]

That's an awesome harvest, many of those beans I've grown and never gotten yields like what you have there. Tiger's Eye and True Cranberry in particular. Your Nez Perce harvest is fantastic too. Doesn't it just feel so great to have a surplus of beans like that!

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 I'm ready to send back these beans that I've grown over the past two years. (Last year was a bust so I held back the network beans and tried again, thinking I didn't know how to grow beans anymore. This year was amazing; I don't know how many pounds of dry beans I got.)

I have one question though: the recipient label is the inspection facility in New Jersey. How do you receive the package; do they forward it on to you? It's got your name and address all over the forms inside the box; do they need further instructions?

When Linden, New Jersey receives the package with the Green/Yellow label my permit number is on that label. My permit number is also on the sheet you will return also with the countries from which I have delegated to import seed. The Green/Yellow Label is also barcoded. When they read the barcode my name and address will come up on their computer screen. They have my name, address, and phone number in their computer system. They know all the barcoded labels that have been issued to me. They do forward the package to me when they are done looking at it via the U.S postal service. It comes to me in my mailbox. I have spoken with one of the inspectors at the New Jersey facility and what they are mainly looking for is insect pests that might be in the shipment.

I hope you still have the Package Inventory list to also include in your package. If it's not in the package. The New Jersey inspectors will call me and ask for it and I may not have saved a copy of yours. I'm trying to get into the habit of saving a copy of every single Package Inventory list of everyone outside the U.S. that I send beans too for grow out. Actually I don't have your screen name matched up with your real name. You might PM me let me know what your name is. I will edit your file name on my address labels software.

I should probably repeat what I told Artorious about the Green/Yellow labels for everyone. They do have a three year expiration date from the time I first opened this account. If you look at the label closely you will see the expiration date printed on the line above the barcode and over to the right side of the label. This year is the year that all the small seed lots labels that have been issued to me will expire. I think it would be best if your package is mailed early enough to make it to the examining station before the December 11th date. My guess is they are going to purge all the data regarding all the labels that they have issued in the last three years. It will empty a load of data on their files on their system. Erase all that data and start all over again. Anyone who wants a small seed lots account will have to apply all over again.

 

[flowerbug]

I start all my bean seeds in modules and get them going about two weeks before the first expected frost date. I started Kermit's Smoky Mountain on 15th May. I could go a couple of weeks earlier but more than two weeks indoors mean that they outgrow my indoor lights and get very leggy. Most years the slightly later ones catch up the earlier ones Bec cause conditions are getting that bit warmer. I'll just have to hope for a better season next year.

I grow mainly pole beans and most varieties mature in time to collect seed. Perhaps your season is shorter tan mine. My impression is that you get rather more beans for the space you have rather than less but of course it does mean constructing some kind of support. I don't use fences but have constructed a couple of amateurish wooden frames which I lash canes to - four canes for each variety.But I believe that you have a particular dwarf variety which does very well for you so quite understand you wouldn't want to risk unhelpful crossing with that one.

i love that you call my bush beans dwarfs because i love the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and other works by that author (and some others) and also because i've not heard that expression often enough for me to remember it so it brought me up a bit short (pun somewhat also intended )...

i think i was given the plants already started in a gallon container and they would have been planted out towards the end of May and hoped for season end would be by Sept 15th or later. i'd have to go back to the 2018 bean thread to find out what happened or look in my own thread and go back to see when the frosts happened that season...

 

[flowerbug]

Oh my goodness! Thank you @flowerbug! This is such a great help! I'm in the middle of logging in my 2023 beans to my website, and I rely quite a bit on that website for historical info in the descriptions. I'm always so impressed with people that have your technological skills, that you could find this resource sort of blows me away!

aww! well thanks, but i'm old and have been around a long time so... some things stick. i didn't have to look it up but it did take me a few minutes to find that i'd misspelled bohnen as bonen and i was dismayed that i was not bringing up the archived site at all... once i fixed that mistake it was all golden and birds chirping again...

 

[flowerbug]

And when I say this year was amazing, I mean this kind of amazing. And we've still got five flats of beans to shell! We had a WWOOFer for the first time this year, and she really enjoyed it -- she would say "it's so peaceful". Yup, it sure is. And exciting, esp when you mix varieties in one flat. Like opening up presents! (and no, I don't plant similar-looking varieties in one row, so I don't put them into the same flat. Learned that lesson the hard way.)

View attachment 61897

wonderful presentation! very nice looking baskets.

i know what you mean about opening presents and also to not plant similar beans in the same rows but i can tell you from experience that you can still have some fun because of out-crosses showing up. i enjoy them all even if i can't do something with them. i'm getting too many to possibly figure out - i need a much larger space and minions. WOOOFERs would be fantastic but there's limited space here and an elderly parent who would not enjoy that sort of thing. which is sad but it's just life so...

great crop and glad you persisted after a difficult season the first time around.

ok, coming back to add a bit more now as a later edit. your comment about Bantu throwing a lot of boring tan beans i think that's similar to what happens to some other beans where they generate a lot of whatever is considered average for them genetically. for some beans that is solid browns, for other beans it's tan, for others it's brown with some pattern on them that looks like Pinto, etc. after some years of growing Purple Dove this year i was able to grow out some out-crosses, but also found some new ones too so those are tan and plain and then i also have some others which are more interesting but the habit of those beans was semi-runner which i don't really want so i'm not sure what i'll do with them in the end. they may not be edible as fresh beans so that also would be a negative and a reason i'd not want to grow them again, but if i can get them to cross again with Purple Dove then i may regain the edible and bush traits but keep the interesting seed coat change... so we'll see how it goes...

 

[capsicumguy]

That's an awesome harvest, many of those beans I've grown and never gotten yields like what you have there. Tiger's Eye and True Cranberry in particular. Your Nez Perce harvest is fantastic too. Doesn't it just feel so great to have a surplus of beans like that!

It really does feel good to have this many beans! I mean, economically I know it doesn't make much sense when I can buy five pounds of good organic beans for fifteen dollars. But they're so beautiful up there on the shelf in their glass jars (and in the baskets before we put them away), and the flavour and texture of some of them are so different from what I can get in the store!

Ever since the first year many years ago, we haven't had a good yield from Tiger Eye either. They mature nice and early, but they just don't amount to much. It's a shame, cuz they are my wife's favourite and they're so smooth when cooked. True Cran, though, has always been a decent performer for us. Not the earliest in the field, but certainly enough to earn their place in our garden. And Nez Perce too; amazing yield for such a small plant. I like how they put out two flushes in one year.

Each variety has either 25 linear feet of ground for bush and semi-runners, or four poles in a teepee for proper pole beans. I cram them pretty tight -- about one seed every four inches, which I've heard encourages early maturing

wonderful presentation! very nice looking baskets.

Thanks! For me the aesthetics is three quarters of it. We pick up these bean-sorting baskets whenever we're in the thrift store; I like how mismatched they are.

i know what you mean about opening presents and also to not plant similar beans in the same rows but i can tell you from experience that you can still have some fun because of out-crosses showing up.

Yes!!! This was the first year I discovered what looks like a proper outcross -- here, let me show it to you. I found it in a spot where we grew True Cran last year but not this year. As far as I can tell it's two volunteers from last year's crop and does have some True Cran parentage; the funny fat diamond shape in big seed-hugging pods seems very true to parent, while the colours are completely new. One is almost a traditional red-and-white mottled cranberry, but with patterning more like Turkey Craw, and the other is black. They are a similar shape to Nona Agnes, but the black is too dark and I grew Nona Agnes in a completely different garden plot last year. Like, up the hill from this plot.

I'm super excited to have two completely new varieties -- if they prove to be stable. Name ideas welcome -- I want to call the red-and-white ones Christmas Feast (turkey and cranberries -- get it? )

i enjoy them all even if i can't do something with them. i'm getting too many to possibly figure out - i need a much larger space and minions. WOOOFERs would be fantastic but there's limited space here and an elderly parent who would not enjoy that sort of thing. which is sad but it's just life so...

Yeah, that'd be tricky. We live with my in-laws also, but they're happy for the extra help (it means they can go camping more often) and the nonagenarian monarch likes the steady stream of new face. Exhausting to have someone in our space, because it means seven-day workweeks for my wife and me (not the WWOOFer, of course). But we get so much done!

Thanks, all, for the questions and comments and encouragement! I haven't been able to keep up with this year's thread (or last year's) so it's nice to connect with you all at the end of the season.

 

[capsicumguy]

When Linden, New Jersey receives the package with the Green/Yellow label my permit number is on that label. My permit number is also on the sheet you will return also with the countries from which I have delegated to import seed. The Green/Yellow Label is also barcoded. When they read the barcode my name and address will come up on their computer screen. They have my name, address, and phone number in their computer system. They know all the barcoded labels that have been issued to me. They do forward the package to me when they are done looking at it via the U.S postal service. It comes to me in my mailbox. I have spoken with one of the inspectors at the New Jersey facility and what they are mainly looking for is insect pests that might be in the shipment.

That's a relief to hear. So the long and short of it is that the parcel will get to you without any extra instruction on my part.

I hope you still have the Package Inventory list to also include in your package.

Yes, I do still have the inventory sheets. I've crossed out a couple varieties -- the P'Town never germinated, and I've tried the blue speckled teparies two years in a row and had no luck. Last year they matured but never developed blue speckles, and this year they just didn't come up (that, or a well-meaning co-gardener yarded them out because they didn't look like they belonged in the greenhouse ) I guess I'll try again next year!

Actually I don't have your screen name matched up with your real name. You might PM me let me know what your name is. I will edit your file name on my address labels software.

Will do.

I should probably repeat what I told Artorious about the Green/Yellow labels for everyone. They do have a three year expiration date from the time I first opened this account.

Yes, I was in a panic today because I misread the expiry date on the labels -- I was reading it as 12 Nov (the Canadian reading of 12-11-2023) and all the shipping rates were between $60 and $250 for that timeframe. Relieved to hear I have a bit more time than that

 

[Decoy1]

i love that you call my bush beans dwarfs because i love the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and other works by that author (and some others) and also because i've not heard that expression often enough for me to remember it so it brought me up a bit short (pun somewhat also intended )...

The accepted terms in the UK of course are ‘dwarf’ for bush beans and ‘climbing’ for pole beans. I try to use the US terms when on a US forum but sometimes forget! I’m glad you enjoyed it rather than being plain mystified.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The accepted terms in the UK of course are ‘dwarf’ for bush beans and ‘climbing’ for pole beans. I try to use the US terms when on a US forum but sometimes forget! I’m glad you enjoyed it rather than being plain mystified.

If you love Tolkien so much, why are you saying "dwarfs" instead of "dwarves" (remember Tolkien CREATED that plural for the Hobbit) ?

I wonder then, are super short types "petty dwarves"? (Silmarillion joke).