2024 Little Easy Bean Network - Growing Heirloom Beans Of Today And Tomorrow

[flowerbug]

... Hip hip hooray, the beans will definitely all be on their way.

yay!

 

[heirloomgal]

As you know @Blue-Jay, I've recently waded into the waters of instagram. Wasn't really my idea, I had some forces pushing on me to do it, but I must say it has been some fun. And the amount of bean lovers out there is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I think of it as a fun and delicious hobby, but this has got to be one of the most devoted groups of seed people. I wouldn't have guessed that beans are such a super popular 'collector' veggie!

 

[Zeedman]

As you know @Blue-Jay, I've recently waded into the waters of instagram. Wasn't really my idea, I had some forces pushing on me to do it, but I must say it has been some fun. And the amount of bean lovers out there is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I think of it as a fun and delicious hobby, but this has got to be one of the most devoted groups of seed people. I wouldn't have guessed that beans are such a super popular 'collector' veggie!

Well, one of the meanings for "gram" is several small beans in the Vigna genus. So the quick-cooking mung beans are sort of... instagrams.

 

[Blue-Jay]

As you know @Blue-Jay, I've recently waded into the waters of instagram. Wasn't really my idea, I had some forces pushing on me to do it, but I must say it has been some fun. And the amount of bean lovers out there is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I think of it as a fun and delicious hobby, but this has got to be one of the most devoted groups of seed people. I wouldn't have guessed that beans are such a super popular 'collector' veggie!

It's amazing the amount people all over the world that love beans. Like collecting them and growing them and eating them. They are actually also possibly keeping varieties from going extinct by doing all the growing, sharing and collecting.

I thought about posting my beans on instagram too. Possibly people on instagram that would see your beans that might not be on other social media platforms.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Jesse Fiske - Bush Dry. Left Photo. Pre-1740’s variety. The bean was brought originally by a Jesse Fisk who emigrated from England in the 1740’s to Charleston, New Hampshire. I acquired this bean from a grower in Blyth, Ontario. This years grower is from Seattle, Washington.

Joyce Fetterly's Red And White - Pole Dry. Right Photo. I acquired the bean from a Seed Savers Exchange member in 2014. I don't know any detailed history of this bean. I suspect that it was probably named after the person who grew this bean for a long time. This years grower is from Santa Ana, California.


Jesse Fiske..............................................................Joyce Fetterley's Red And White

 

[heirloomgal]

It's amazing the amount people all over the world that love beans. Like collecting them and growing them and eating them. They are actually also possibly keeping varieties from going extinct by doing all the growing, sharing and collecting.

I thought about posting my beans on instagram too. Possibly people on instagram that would see your beans that might not be on other social media platforms.

Yes, all over the world! Colombia, Spain, Russia all these people around the world who really, really love them. I've only just gotten started on that platform but I'm amazed how quickly the dots start to connect between accounts and people just find you. I nearly fell over when Joseph Lofthouse started to follow me! I don't even know how he found me, but wow that was a nice surprise. It really does seem that instagram has a HUGE garden space, so many gardening and seed saving focused accounts and there is a lot of connection between all the accounts. It's like an electrical conduit, this to this to this and then - a galaxy of constellations.

I was quite averse to social media aside from this platform, I have no other accounts and I only have so much time in a day for that stuff, but for the purpose of disseminating seeds it's a great place for people to find you and to literally explore the world of people's gardens. There are a lot of folks out there that really care about seeds!

I was tickled when I posted about a bean I grew this summer from @Artorius called 'Braune Tereza'; I asked in the post if it was the same bean as 'Herrenbohnli' because to me they look identical. Right away the responses from the bean collectors started to roll in - definitely not the same they said!! And I had links sent to me and other good info.
Bean people do NOT want the facts mixed up!

 

[Blue-Jay]

I got information about J. Carroll's West Virginia lima bean on Facebook that I posted in post #1079. I believe I have pieced together the modern history of this bean.

A fellow on our seed swap circut John Woodworth his neighbor since 1993 was Jimmy O'dell Carroll in Gate City, Virginia. Jim was one of the original Rocket boys who grew up in Coalwood, West Viriginia where the movie October Sky is based. So Jim Carroll got the bean from the grandson of the man who owned a farm in Kingsport, Tennessee where the headquarters of the Eastman Kodak Company is now located. The seed was found in the grandfather's freezer.

Jim Carroll heard that John Woodworth was going to the second annual Appalachian Heirloom Seed Conservancy conference at Bill Best's farm in Berea, Kentucky probably in about 2004. Jim gave some of these lima beans to John Woodworth to see if anyone at the conference would recognize the bean. Another person John Coykendall of Knoxville, Tennessee was the featured speaker at this conference and he acquired some of the beans from John Woodworth. John Coykendall didn't know what the bean was. John Coykendall is also a member of Seed Savers Exchange. Bill Best told John Woodworth who brought the bean to the conference that the bean probably originated in North Carolina and was a variety of a calico. So John Woodworth called the bean Caroll's Calico in honor of his friend Jim Carroll. This is where the bean's name gets it's association with Jim O'dell Caroll.

A few years later John Woodworth noticed that John Coykendall had listed the bean in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook as J. Carroll. The beans name is taking shape. I noticed the bean listed in the Seed Savers Exchange 2012 yearbook as J. Caroll's West Virginia Butterbean and I acquired seed from John Coykendall. No history was written up in the yearbook except there was a simple description of the seeds color and that the bean was very produtive. Well butterbean is most southerners way of saying lima bean. After I acquired the bean from John Coykendall. I simply droped butterbean from the name because you can see that the bean is a lima. So what if after every single P. Vulgaris bean we added the word bean to it's name. Unnecessary I think. My thinking is the actual full name of this bean is simply J. Carroll's West Virginia. So now here we have the history, discovery and naming of this bean.


J. Carroll's West Virginia

 

[Blue-Jay]

Karachaganak - Semi Runner Dry. Left photo. This bean was stablized and named by Jerry Maddox who now lives in Louisiana. It was one of 7 segregations from one of the 52 packets of outcrossed beans that I got from Will Bonsall in 2015. I sent out about half the outcrossed packets to other people to grow and name in 2016. This years grower is from De Soto, Wisconsin.

Letcher County Fall - Pole Dry. Right Photo. Bean originates from Letcher County, Kentucky. I acquired this beautiful bean from Appalachian Heirloom Beans in 2020. This years grower is from Indianapolis, Indiana


Karachaganak.............................................................Letcher County Fall

 

[Artorius]

I was tickled when I posted about a bean I grew this summer from @Artorius called 'Braune Tereza'; I asked in the post if it was the same bean as 'Herrenbohnli' because to me they look identical. Right away the responses from the bean collectors started to roll in - definitely not the same they said!! And I had links sent to me and other good info.
Bean people do NOT want the facts mixed up!

@heirloomgal
Did you find out which region of Germany Braune Tereza comes from? In my notes I only wrote in general - Germany. I would like to have more information about the origin of this bean.

 

[Artorius]

Frost - Pole Dry. Left Photo. A pre 1796 bean I acquired from a grower in Bozeman, Montana in 2018. I wonder if the bean has been used as a snap bean. The idea of it's name is that it produces until frost in the autumn hence it's name. Previous to this year I sent this bean out to growers seven times and only one return came back since 2020. This year in 2024 two growers grew the bean and both retuned lots of beautiful seed. Growers were from Mason, Michigan and De Soto, Wisconsin.

Fruhe Goldbohne - Bush Dry. Right Photo. German bean I believe that I acquired from a bean friend in Austria. One of my most requested beans.

View attachment 71120View attachment 71121
Frost.......................................................................Fruhe Goldbohne

I see the curse has been lifted from the Frost bean .
I also got some good seeds this year. Unfortunately, only a small handful. The plants were badly damaged by the storm, took a long time to recover and only a few pods managed to fully ripen. This was my third attempt at growing Frost and I am making progress