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

[Artorius]

@heirloomgal, the purple color seems to be similar to Lucie, but I'm not 100% sure. I would have to take the seeds out of the freezer to compare.

 

[Triffid]

Zazza - pole bean from Val Camonica, Lombardy, Italy. Very productive, from two plants I got almost 2 kg of seeds.

Now that's extraordinary what did you feed them?

 

[Artorius]

@Triffid, I don't feed my beans with anything special. Before sowing, I give nitrogen and potassium to the soil and later, when the plants have grown a bit, magnesium sulfate with microelements to the leaves. I guess I won't get a Michelin star for this

The exact weight of the Zazza seeds is 1,89 kg, but "almost 2 kg" looks better

 

[Triffid]

All gorgeous..
On this photo Zazza looks a bit like Hewitt, when fresh. Is there a difference between them?

Hewitt has darker stripes, but the pattern is similar

 

[flowerbug]

Hewitt has darker stripes, but the pattern is similar
View attachment 72984

are those well aged or is that how they came from the pods? if from the pod they would be darker enough i would consider them a different variety (based upon the two pictures i'm seeing posted here )...

 

[Artorius]

Hewitt has darker stripes, but the pattern is similar
View attachment 72984

What a pretty bean. I'm writing it down in my notebook.

 

[Triffid]

are those well aged or is that how they came from the pods? if from the pod they would be darker enough i would consider them a different variety (based upon the two pictures i'm seeing posted here )...

The previous picture isn't mine but presumably those are fresh seeds, as my sample from 2021 looks different. The milky brown background is darker and more orange, and the pattern is more dark plum than blue.

It appears the pattern on Zazza is a coffee brown, whereas the pattern on Hewitt seeds is on the blue-black end of the spectrum. In my experience the former doesn't age into the latter. Maybe blue-ish seeds turn khaki as they age but not the other way around. Do you have a similar observation?

 

[flowerbug]

... Maybe blue-ish seeds turn khaki as they age but not the other way around. Do you have a similar observation?

pretty much yes, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[Triffid]

@flowerbug I took a photo of the older seeds in lieu of my poor description - a picture is worth a thousand words! They're definitely more striking when fresh

What a pretty bean. I'm writing it down in my notebook.

I'll set some aside for your collection

 

[heirloomgal]

So my Uruguay bean trade is underway! We both finally figured out what we wanted from each other and I wound up requesting seeds I didn't think I'd want! For instance...cowpeas. However, he did have some nice P. vulgaris beans so that's most of what I got from him. One is called 'Blue Marvel' and a marvel it is. Google translate was not perfectly helpful in our communications, so it's hard to know if I might have a version of it under a different name. Mostly though nothing looked familiar aside from the gorgeous blue bean. I think some of the old traditional landraces that come from specific areas don't necessarily have special designated names - it might just be yellow low bean, or yellow tall bean. So I'm looking forward to looking at the packets and seeing what's written, I picked from photos not names mostly. I may never actually know what the names are! lol One I know for sure is called 'Quail Porotos'.

Anyway, I've never been much of a cowpea person partly because they are generally not a great fit for my climate, and I don't know what they taste like as snaps. And the seeds are not super nice looking either compared to common beans. But superficiality got the better of me because 2 of his cowpeas were sooo pretty I could not resist. One a caramel and cream Holstein look, and another that was the color of Forelle Fleiderfarben. Early varieties he said. Exciting times!! Hilarious though how we're struggling a bit to communicate effectively with the language barrier. I labeled his parcel and then took a picture and sent it to him, JUST in case. Also, gives him a little assurance. It was addressed WRONG! Google must have translated auto pilot what he wrote because I wrote it just EXACTLY as it appeared on the screen. If I hadn't shown the picture to him it would be flying to Shangrila right now. He confirmed it was a translation glitch. Boy, that was some good luck!