2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[jbrobin09]

I’m starting to get so excited about this growing season! I’m going to try winter sowing of a few flowers, but I’m agonizing over which beans to grow out this year. How does one choose, if the age of the beans isn’t an issue? Prettiest? Most useful? Rarest? I’m probably overthinking it, lol.

I’m going to have to add more beds so I can plant more, of course. I need to get my onions and peppers started this week, so that will occupy me.

 

[Triffid]

I'd normally go with a mix of the ones I love to eat + whatever's new or low on seeds. Do you have many new varieties this year?

 

[heirloomgal]

In the literal sense, it translates to 'clusters' or 'bunches' from Mechelen, aka Malines, in Antwerp. The French name for the variety is Grappes de Malines.
Contextually it's likely referring to the bunches of pods that form, grappe being the collective term for a bunch of fruit or flowers - it does appear that the racemes consistently set more pods than the average bean. You could ask Guy Dirix; Meise is near Mechelen so he might know the variety's history

Oh! Okay I was totally totally off with that one. (Well, google was too lol) Way way off. So it isn't about the Malinois dog breed. It is amazing how poorly I have translated some of my variety names over the years. I bet my website has got some mistakes in that department. Thank you for sharing this info @Triffid, I could never have figured that out using google translate and with my poor geography. That name makes total sense to me me now!

 

[flowerbug]

I’m starting to get so excited about this growing season! I’m going to try winter sowing of a few flowers, but I’m agonizing over which beans to grow out this year. How does one choose, if the age of the beans isn’t an issue? Prettiest? Most useful? Rarest? I’m probably overthinking it, lol.
...

i go by which bean projects i want to continue, plus beans that i have which need to be renewed and then the rest of the garden space i have left is filled up with bulk beans of several kinds plus i tend to poke some project beans in here or there to have more than one kind of bean alone in an area. i do not mind crosses happening.