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

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal Despite the ups and downs of growing beans this season you did a fantabulous job with every single one you grew, and had a terrific display . count, weigh in, colors and descriptions on each one. You need to get a high tech bean counter to help you out. I think I would be going nutty if I had to count so many beans, besides eyes goin cross eyed.

High tech bean counter..
View attachment 70046

Awe, thank you @Shades-of-Oregon! Hahaha, too cute!

 

[Branching Out]

Back on July 28th I started a few Mascotte bush beans, and they have made it to maturity. They are growing in window boxes sitting on the ground close to the house and protected from the rain. There's a little bit of grey mold here and there; not much though, considering that I haven't done any upkeep on them and we had 15" of rain in October. The beans taste really succulent and juicy, perhaps because of the exposure to the cold nights. I will definitely try a late crop of bush snap beans again next year.

 

[Branching Out]

There was one last little pod of Coco de Belle Isle hanging on the vine, so I harvested it and liberated its two seeds. They are the plump blush pink ones that are shown sitting on the table. It's so interesting how the colour changes as the bean dries and ages. What sets this variety apart is the beautiful contrast of the clear white against the saturated pink; it's really a lovely seed coat. The tray of beans to the right of them were harvested in late September, and the ones in the round stainless steel bowl were picked in mid-October (you will note some staining on those beans, likely a result of the excessive precipitation that we experienced). On top of the round plastic container are three beans with a darker seed coat, which I suppose would be a reversal. Funny that of all of the beans only one pod had a reversal. There are also a few beans with what I think of as Yin and Yang type dots; one dot is pink with burgundy, and one has the colour of the reversal. Last year I grew this cultivar out as a Network bean in what was a difficult growing season; in the end there were just barely enough dry seeds to send back to Blue Jay. This year they did better, so it looks like I will get to cook some of them up and actually taste them. I'm looking forward to that.

 

[heirloomgal]

Happy Halloween bean lovers!

I won the family pumpkin carving contest! 1st time ever!

I think I was subconsciously influenced by my expert seed saving friend Susan, who lives and gardens off grid on a goat farm!

 

[Million Bells]

Hi ho, new poster. I've been lurking for awhile. Relatively new bean grower, as I had to finally admit defeat and put in raised beds. Too many tree roots (three varieties that spread by runners).

I'm in the part of Maryland that basically has two growing seasons - stinking hot and humid, then reasonable but racing the frost. Rattlesnake beans produce well in the summer, but stop when the temperatures dip into reasonable. Right now I'm waiting on the moro beans to finish up. They survived Sunday's dip into the 30s and we got over 80 on Halloween. I could bring them in any time, but am greedy. The long range forecast says I have till the middle to end of November till the weather shuts it all down. So why not let them continue to fatten up? I have to water the pumpkins anyway.

Loving everyone's pictures.

 

[heirloomgal]

Some more bean pictures! Had a nice sunny day after a long spell of grey, was so nice!

Network bean Stayley's Star

Network bean Kilham Goose

Cannelino Nero bush bean

Coco à la Crème bush bean

Coree de Sang pole bean

Network bean Dule. This is such a pretty bean, very subtle colour tones to the beans; lavender, pinks, yellowy beiges. Quite difficult to capture on the camera.

Early Refuge bush bean

Brizzolo Toscana pole bean

Network bean Harvey's White Haricot. Outstanding variety. Quite large seeds.

 

[flowerbug]

i was able to get back to some bean shelling yesterday and today.

yesterday's quarter bag of beans gave me about a 1/2 cup of beans. these came from plants grown in a pretty poor soil garden which gets amended with whatever i can come up with and the soil is more sandy than most of the other gardens which have more clay. some years it does ok and other years it doesn't - mostly it is related to how hot it gets right when the pods are developing and filling. this was a mixed variety garden so not all rows were Purple Dove beans.

in contrast the beans i shelled out this morning were from the last garden i harvested and i wanted to verify that the condition of these beans were excellent and they were. almost every pod had beans that were full, clean and very little other issues. a few had some wrinkles due to them being knocked out the end of the season by frost, but even those are still edible. 2-3 cups of Purple Dove dry beans. considering the garden was also raided by groundhogs it did very well.

 

[heirloomgal]

Some more bean pics!

'Porcelain' bush bean

'Braune Tereza' pole bean. This reminds me so much of that other little bean 'Herrenbohnli', or something like that.

Network bean Brown Eyed Goose

Johnson bush bean, sent to me by @jbosmith. Thanks jb! Love it! I believe this is a special Vermont/Maine heirloom bean?

Network bean Schwarz Valder Aus Machbonne . This bean, wow. I don't think I've ever grown a bush bean that was this high yielding. Truly outstanding variety that I will never be without.

Puts the 'purple' in 'Purple Dove'

San Bernardo blue pole bean...

 

[Blue-Jay]

San Bernardo blue pole bean...

Oh my gosh is that a beautiful blue! Do you get any that have a hint of tan in them?

 

[Blue-Jay]

I recently saw a bean that a lady from BC Canada posted on Facebook. I wanted some them to grow so I asked her if she would do a trade and she did. I got 10 seeds of this bean she found in something else which I can't remember what. She calls the bean Margot. I just thought it has such a neat shade of lavender with the white. Will try to get it grouwn out next year.

Margot - Pole


I was at a seed swap in Berea, Kentucky this weekend. One of the fellows gave me another Appalachian bean called John Wynn Greasy. The seeds of this bean are very tiny. I wonder if it's because of the soil they are grown in. Sometimes people in Kentucky have mostly clay to deal with.

John Wynn Greasy - Pole