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.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How does one choose, if the age of the beans isn’t an issue? Prettiest? Most useful? Rarest? I’m probably overthinking it, lol.

We each have our own goals and reasons for doing things. I'm sure my goals are different from yours. When I was getting new varieties from Bluejay I'd look at his oldest that needed to be renewed, growth habit (preferred climbing), and prettiest. I wanted unique colors and patterns too so they did not look alike. When I was trying to stabilize new varieties from crosses I selected ones that I thought might be close to stabilizing, highly productive ones, and some that were just interesting.

It might be easier to choose if you know what you are trying to achieve but I agree, it is never an easy choice.

 

[flowerbug]

...
It might be easier to choose if you know what you are trying to achieve but I agree, it is never an easy choice.

my babies! each one is important to me, but no way can i give all of them the kind of time it will take to see what happens next.

some you can tell right away though are not going to make the cut unless they happen to cross with something else. i have a few already they are nice looking beans, but they get too easily marked on the seedcoat and that is not an attractive look no matter what the seed coat underneath looks like. it's unfortunate because their shape and colors are nice - just how it goes... i won't even replant them because i really don't want those genetic traits being spread around.

 

[jbrobin09]

@heirloomgal I bought some copper wire so I can do some trials this summer with the little rods you had mentioned awhile back. Do you have a book or website that explained the concepts and technique?

 

[jbrobin09]

We each have our own goals and reasons for doing things. I'm sure my goals are different from yours. When I was getting new varieties from Bluejay I'd look at his oldest that needed to be renewed, growth habit (preferred climbing), and prettiest. I wanted unique colors and patterns too so they did not look alike. When I was trying to stabilize new varieties from crosses I selected ones that I thought might be close to stabilizing, highly productive ones, and some that were just interesting.

It might be easier to choose if you know what you are trying to achieve but I agree, it is never an easy choice.

Yes, I was just sort of thinking out loud. But your (plural) responses helped me think it out. I’d like to try out a lot of these (dried) beans for flavour, so I think I will plant out the ones with the best flavour reviews, as well as a couple pretty ones and some older ones. Plus the bean grow-outs I participate in (Russ’s hopefully if he’s willing to give me another shot, and Seeds of Diversity). Ive also offered to donate some bean and squash seeds for a rematriation of indigenous seeds project so i need to grow enough of those to share. Yikes, I am going to need more garden beds! plus we are adding another bed of asparagus, grapes, haskap, etc. I hope we get an early thaw so we can start digging!

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal I bought some copper wire so I can do some trials this summer with the little rods you had mentioned awhile back. Do you have a book or website that explained the concepts and technique?

I did write a little blog about it on the website, although there isn't a ton of info in there. I haven't read much, being such an esoteric methodology but there is a fellow named Yannick Van Doorne, he has a website and is kind of considered the big kahuna of e culture. A friend of mine attended a lecture he gave about it. Only thing is his native tongue is French so lots of the audio is not understandable, for me at least. You might speak it better than I. I was so amazed to see on his site that in Europe some farmers are even using the e poles for livestock fields as the EMF seems to be affecting their reproduction negatively, and the wands create a repellant field. SO much to learn with this, it's amazng stuff.