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

[Branching Out]

In 2022 bush snap bean Harvester Mangiatutto was a bust, and then in 2023 I planted my last two seeds and was able to harvest some dry pods. This photo shows the seed harvest from this summer from a patch of about a dozen plants-- beautiful blemish free beans with almost no culls. The exponential growth is amazing. This variety holds its pods well above the soil, and is very easy to shell. https://www.theeasygarden.com/threa...colors-of-a-rainbow.24964/page-89#post-427417

 

[ruralmamma]

The St. Fiacre story has always had a special place in my heart. Who knew there was a bean?!? May I ask where you got your seeds? I don't find it in either of Russ's collections, Seed Savers, or in a general Google search.

It's part of the USDA collection. I've participated in several trials the last few years but this is the first time beans have been offered and my first time with USDA sourced beans as it's usually SSE or similar organizations. Five out of seven seeds germinated and it's been an overachiever since. I would probably label it as a Romano type as pods were long and flat and unless the beans were very young, the pods were inedible as snaps. Flavor was very good on those I cooked in the snap/Shelly stage but haven't tried cooking the dry bean yet. I have an abundance of seed if you want to give them a try.

I had to do a search as I'm unfamiliar with St. Fiacre and am not sure if these beans have any connection as they were obtained from the Ukraine. I definitely learned something new today though.

I found two different listings for San Fiacre on USDA site.

 

[Branching Out]

It's part of the USDA collection. I've participated in several trials the last few years but this is the first time beans have been offered and my first time with USDA sourced beans as it's usually SSE or similar organizations. Five out of seven seeds germinated and it's been an overachiever since. I would probably label it as a Romano type as pods were long and flat and unless the beans were very young, the pods were inedible as snaps. Flavor was very good on those I cooked in the snap/Shelly stage but haven't tried cooking the dry bean yet. I have an abundance of seed if you want to give them a try. Also found two different listings for San Fiacre on USDA site.

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Interesting to know that the USDA offers seed trials. Is there a link for this page please? And are home gardeners encouraged to participate in these trials?

 

[ruralmamma]

Interesting to know that the USDA offers seed trials. Is there a link for this page please? And are home gardeners encouraged to participate in these trials?

The trial is actually through SeedLinked and all seem to be home gardener friendly. They provide a selection of trials early to mid-winter available for the following year and I simply choose the ones I'm most interested in. So basically an organization or individual sets everything up, I choose the ones I'm interested in and I receive the seeds in time for planting.

From what I've read, obtaining seed from the USDA is not that easy. If you request as a plant breeder maybe, but not as a home gardener.

 

[heirloomgal]

In 2022 bush snap bean Harvester Mangiatutto was a bust, and then in 2023 I planted my last two seeds and was able to harvest some dry pods. This photo shows the seed harvest from this summer from a patch of about a dozen plants-- beautiful blemish free beans with almost no culls. The exponential growth is amazing. This variety holds its pods well above the soil, and is very easy to shell. https://www.theeasygarden.com/threa...colors-of-a-rainbow.24964/page-89#post-427417

All gorgeous seeds @Branching Out, Ugandan Bantu, such an outstandingly beautiful bean seed variety. I got a hold of some full fledge pole selections in the UB line, can't wait to try them. It can be amazing how in acclimatizing to specific conditions seeds can dramatically increase production. Last year I grew network bean Gabarone Sugar, it baaarely made it to the 60, barely even climbed for a semi. This year I replanted what was left and the vines are incredibly vigorous, loaded with pods. Once they like you, they really really like you.

 

[flowerbug]

diversity in plantings is important and how to find varieties which work well with your conditions. with how different each year has been the past ten years beans that sometimes do very well then will not and then the next year they may return to doing well again or just be moderately successful.

i've gotten back to picking dry beans with all this warm and dry weather there are plenty of pods ready to pick again. we have patchy fogs at night but there is still no rain in the forecast for the next week so i should be able to get everything picked through again.

with fewer leaves in the way on the plants it is easier to see the pods which are left to pick - so that also does help speed things up (along with there being not so many to pick through), but also with some pods being super dry they may shatter when touched so i may also be slowed down picking beans off the ground. there is also a nice bonus to this picking in that not many pods are left to dry down so what few there are i'm just leaving most of them so i don't have to sort through them later.

today's haul was two full boxes (then i got too hot and decided it was enough) so those can go into a bag that i will add to tomorrow when i finish up this garden.

 

[heirloomgal]

It's a year of bean oddities for me - I noticed a ways back, at least a month ago, a new bean sprout in one of the gardens between poles that I didn't plant. It must be a bean that fell last year. Surprising it didn't sprout earlier. But it's actually grown so fast that there are teeny beans on it at this point, lol. It's only a single sparse vine, but it's funny how it's growing up a bare pole because the beans that were growing there originally have already bean harvested. So funny how these things happen.

 

[Blue-Jay]

So I have beans to shell after all. I have a Seed Saver Exchange friend in Iowa that offered to grow beans for me this year. He stopped by my house Sunday the 15th and droped off 7 boxes of pods harvested from seed that I mailed to him last spring. He has a lot more for me to harvest. Last night and today I've been shelling beans making my days seem a little more like a normal year. I will have a smaller bean show this year, but I will have one. Photos will be coming later this fall. I'm a happy beaner. It's a thrill to see bean pods on my dinning room table.

 

[ruralmamma]

Yesterday was a bit of a scramble. Rain finally forecasted so pulled any pods that were close to being dry and a few that I felt would be dry in a day or two. Rain total so far: a few sprinkles.

 

[heirloomgal]

So I have beans to shell after all. I have a Seed Saver Exchange friend in Iowa that offered to grow beans for me this year. He stopped by my house Sunday the 15th and droped off 7 boxes of pods harvested from seed that I mailed to him last spring. He has a lot more for me to harvest. Last night and today I've been shelling beans making my days seem a little more like a normal year. I will have a smaller bean show this year, but I will have one. Photos will be coming later this fall. I'm a happy beaner. It's a thrill to see bean pods on my dinning room table.

Awe! I'm happy for you!
Something so deeply satisfying about cracking open bean pods looking for treasure.