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

[heirloomgal]

Piekny Jas & sunset runner will look into .
Snaps are overwhelming when deciding which ones. L. Pole , Green Savage etc all will make the grade…just a tricky decision… maybe time to bite the bullet and just try 3or4 rows of each. Mmm- Looking up Fasold. Oh nice French climbing long and thin. Those look tasty. I remember discussions on that one.
Thank you again for you advice and your experience of course adds trust and confidence in decisions .

The #1 thing when it comes to growing snap beans, and I'm probably biased because I love beans so much, is that there is so much out there. So much more variety and diversity than what most realize. Experiment! Especially if you haven't tried the roma/romano varieties, which are not a different species from pencil pod types, but they are still very different as a vegetable from them. I've encountered a few people who were quite thrilled with how good romano snap beans are. A texture sort of like meaty mushrooms. Fortex, that's a really good one too.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

The #1 thing when it comes to growing snap beans, and I'm probably biased because I love beans so much, is that there is so much out there. So much more variety and diversity than what most realize. Experiment! Especially if you haven't tried the roma/romano varieties, which are not a different species from pencil pod types, but they are still very different as a vegetable from them. I've encountered a few people who were quite thrilled with how good romano snap beans are. A texture sort of like meaty mushrooms. Fortex, that's a really good one too.

Thank you for your referrals ..much appreciated . Yikes the number of beans to grow is overwhelming. One reason why I hold your experienced opinions first in my choice.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Mbombo Green - Pole Dry Snap. Right Photo. The bean was nicely productive this past summer. This unique green colored seed can be used in soups or pods can be eaten as a green vegetable. The variety originates in Kenya Africa. To the people of the Kuba tribe Mbombo is associated with the Creator God. The bean itself is thought of as a sign of prosperity and bringing good fertility to the soil. Seed donor @Stephen Smith from Guthrie, Kentucky.

Ohio Pole - Pole Dry. Right Photo. This bean was one of my top producers this past summer with 20.75 ounces of beans (588 grams). About 95 days to first dry pods. Heavy producer of large 8 inch long pods. This late eighteenth century heirloom grown by the Miami people of Kekionga (present day Fort Wayne Indiana), as well as by the Delaware, Shawnee and Potawatomi peoples.


Mbombo Green................................................Ohio Pole

 

[ruralmamma]

We had our first snow of the season Thursday and it left us with 8" of the white stuff. Found another tray of beans to shell but otherwise bean seed is packaged, labeled and waiting to grow again next year.

I'm on some forced downtime due to an ankle injury and using that time to peruse seed catalogs and make plans for next year. I also need to go back and add notes to the varieties I grew this year and note the vigor of each. We had several months of extreme drought which I'm sure affected my bean harvest in good ways and bad. Good because I had very few moldy beans and bad because the harvest on a few was greatly affected.

 

[ruralmamma]

Mbombo Green

I have some Mbombo seed for you too if you'd like it.

 

[Neen5MI]

Ohio Pole - Pole Dry.

View attachment 70697
Mbombo Green................................................Ohio Pole

A friend picked up a handful of these at a local farmer's market for me several years ago, knowing I loved heirloom beans. They've become a staple in my bean garden. Beautiful, carefree, productive.

 

[Branching Out]

Found another tray of beans to shell but otherwise bean seed is packaged, labeled and waiting to grow again next year.

Almost all of the beans here are now packed up in seed envelopes or jars too. For some varieties there are large jars full of dry beans for cooking; those will go to the pantry so we can enjoy them over the winter in soups, chilis, hummus, and burritos. Each of the small jars are filled with the very best of the beans, that will become my seed for next year. Growing dozens of different varieties makes it a bit of a challenge to keep each year's seed separate and well organized. It's a necessary task though, and one that will make things much easier down the road.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I have some Mbombo seed for you too if you'd like it.

Were you part of the Network this past summer?. If you want to send it I would say ok and a big thank you. With as much seed as I have here it makes me feel that I shouldn't have it. I feel sometimes like I'm taking away from someone that maybe doesn't have as much as I do. If you do send them I will package them in small packets and they will go into the freezer. Recorded on my commuter file with your name in the entry.