Wanna see a BIG BEAN?
 

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...potatobean.jpg

Those are navy beans to show size comparison.

More importantly, does anyone know where I might acquire more for eating purposes.

A few years ago, I stumbled on a couple hundred pounds of these large beans, the sacks of which were labeled Potato Beans. Turns out they are hands down favorite of my clan and I'd like to find another source for them.

I found this on google. I hope it helps. I am also interested in find some. I would love to try them.

http://www.enscseeds.org/nativeseed/

Deseronto Potato Bean A very rare all white "potato" bean from Tyendinaga reserve in Canada. Medium yields. Endangered. $4.00

Duane Baptiste Potato Bean Old Six Nations bean traditionally used as a thickener in Native Canadian corn soup. Large white bean with potato flavour, highly adaptable, germinates well, producing consistently high yields even in cool weather. Excellent flavour baked – do not soak as this toughens the skin. $4.00

You ate them all? Can't you plant some of the ones in the photo? Beans have surprisingly long viability.
I'd love to find some of those too. Beans are so easy to just keep enough over each year for next years garden.

Do you have any left to plant in your garden?

They look like large dry lima beans. Do they taste differently than limas?

I do have some left that could be planted, so I'm happy to hear that they maintain viability for a long time. I haven't had good luck here with growing beans of any kind, which was why I was looking to purchase bulk quantities.

And yes, they taste far different than lima's.

Eastern Native Seed Conservency no longer sells any seeds. bummer.

Check here for seeds

http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_...o=PS15366&UID=

Ah - in that case I might be interested too! :p

I wonder if these are the same? marrow fat beans scroll down page this is also a great source for cheap quality heirloom seeds http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com/He...CatalogPrd.asp

Bean sales
 

The Mortgage Lifter bean that used to be sold by Adobe Milling company is a huge bean. I don't see that they currently have it listed, but do have a number of other beans, many of which are certified organic.
http://www.anasazibeans.com/

This company has Mortgage Lifter as well as many, many others. Picking out the one you wish for might be difficult as they don't have a potato bean listed.
http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/index.htm

beans
 

If you send me a handful I will grow them and you will have more seed to propagate. I live in north Ga and we have a great fall growing season. I could actually take them to the Ag dept of UGA . They have a heirloom seed dept.
Angie

Okay this has my curiosity peaked! Dried beans are up in price and I'm thinking of growing some next year. Does anyone know what zone you can grow chick peas in? (garbanza beans) How would you dry any kind of beans for storage? Just dehydrate in the dehydrator? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance, ~Feather

Garbanzo beans supposedly do best in zones 6 and warmer. But a friend grew them the past 2 years here in Wisconsin with fair results. They are one that you don't want to water too much since they are for dry areas.

Drying beans for storage, I dump them in 15x20 meat lugs to a depth of about 4 inches. Then into a dry storeroom or pantry. Every few days, run hands through to mix them all up. That also gives me a good chance to pick out any bad bean or foreign matter. Last year it was 8 gallons of mixed beans and haven't lost a one.

Bare, I'm already beginning my dry bean harvest for this year. Either 23 or 24 different varieties from small tepary beans to a Belizean variety bigger than any kidney bean. Don't have any potato beans yet!

Martin

Drying beans for storage
 

One of the best ways to dry beans for storage is to let them dry in the pods on the vines--IF you are in an area where they wouldn't spoil doing so.

Another way is to pull all of the vines and hang them to dry or pile them VERY SHALLOWLY and turn the pile several times a day. No mold please.

If you want to gear up for larger production and harvest, a "Gleaner" model "A" (and I think C) combines can be fitted with some rubber concaves and slowed down and be used to thrash beans without much damage. An Allis Chalmer Gleaner dealer should be able to tell you which models would work.

Anyone know if an old "All Crop" would thrash them without much damage?

I do believe I owe you some seed Martin, so it you want to try Potato beans, pm me your address again.

paquebot, i've been reading your posts for a number of years under this name and another before this one--because you are from WI and heavily into seeds and gardening. I really appreciate your response. (i'm an invisible admirer)
I may try some bean farming next year on my little acre and it's fun to try new things--good for nutrition, good on the frugalness. Thank you for the information!
I'd like to try some heirloom seeds and now that my garden is actually doing better it might pan out! (learning every day!)
~Feather

Im growing alot of beans this year. Navy, great northren, red kindney, soy. The best advice i have ever gotten is plant beans when apple blossoms fall. and youll have the perfect weather. Always worked for me.

I don't know if these are the same as your pictured beans but they cook up different than regular beans and we like them much better.

www.purcellmountainfarms.com/Hutterite%20Beans.htm]Hutterite Beans[/B]

Nope, not the same. Those are more like big black-eyed peas.

Dry beans are one of the easiest crops to grow, harvest, and store. You simply plant them and wait for the beans to mature and the plants to die. Then you do like I did today, end up with 2 sore thumbs! There were 2 5-gallon pails full of pods of something close to Etna or Coco Rubico spread on a long table to dry further. Plans were to only shell a few of the best pods right away to reserve for seed. Two hours later, I had a clean gallon of those beautiful beans. Since the pods were still a bit damp, each had to be opened individually. Hence the sore thumbnails!

Then decided to see if the Black Tepary beans may be dry enough to thresh out. They were a lot easier since I could pick up a handful and roll them between my hands and most of the beans would fall back into the pail. Wasn't long before I had a gallon of those cute little things. That's about a fifth of that variety. They were planted as a border around the edge of a 50x36 block of 4 plots. Thus it was a continuous row 172' long! There were some prolific plants which I kept the pods separate for use only as seed or trade. Just using the best pods off one single plant, I counted 390 beans. That is one tremendous return from a single bean!

Brown Dutch are probably only going to give me a half-gallon of dry beans. My fault for not saving enough of that great one for planting back. I also didn't realize that it's becoming rather scarce on the commercial market now. It's not nearly as prolific as many other beans but it's one of the best for baked beans. That one may only give about 50:1 return.

My personal best for return by weight is a red bean that I bought back from Belize and this is the 11th year of growing it. It was growing on a Mennonite farm down there and didn't really have a name. We've been calling it Belizean Red among us bean nuts who are growing it. It took a few years to become acclimated to my zone but has improved ever since. Returns are about 120:1.

Presently, I'm still waiting for the first blossom on about 100 plants of one climbing variety. They are Bola Roja/Red Ball and are round and may be as big as a marble. I was informed that there could be a problem with them to acclimate to the long days. That's because they came from about 2 degrees north of the Equator in Colombia. If I can get even a few beans this year, that will be a start toward getting them acclimated. I may not see the final results in my lifetime but we have to start somewhere.

It may still be in Garden Tips about what to do with green beans after one is tired of picking green beans. Leave them alone to ripen the final fruit set. Last year, I told that to anyone growing beans in our community gardens. If the gardener didn't want them, then I'd pick them. In the final two weeks before cleanup, I gleaned so many beans that we ended up with 8 gallons of mixed dry beans without including my own. I estimated at least 25 different varieties overall. There was one mistake made on my part. I didn't keep any bean variety separate and all went into the same big lot. Afterward, found that there is one bean that must take forever to cook down as it remains crunchy. Can't sort it out since it's one of a dozen white-seeded varieties!

Now can hardly wait until cooler weather when I can make a big pot of thick bean soup every Friday and eat on it for the whole weekend!

Martin

You only eat beans on the weekend? Whoa!

Yep, only on weekends. For 7 years after retiring, worked 4 days a week with my brother. Being off Friday allowed me to do a proper job of cooking up a pot of beans while my wife was at work. Began on Thursday evening with the overnight soaking. Then chopping, dicing, etc. of all vegetables involved. On the stove by 10AM for at least 6 hours at a low simmer. Served over a slice or two of whole wheat or rye bread in a large soup bowl. No two batches ever the same with ham, smoked or plain pork hocks, summer sausage, bratwurst, wieners, or even chicken gizzards for the meat. It's whatever is on hand to go along with the beans. But never too much of the other stuff since it's the beans which have center stage.

Martin

Yer gonna have to get yerself a crockpot lad. I think they were designed specifically for creating beany goodness. Toss the stuff in and no worries until it's time to eat.

Amazing to me that I can eat beans in one form or another nearly every day, yet never tire of them.

With the information from your PM I was able to find some pictures of Aztec half runner beans aka potato beans and they look as close as anything else I've seen. I do hope you can figure out what they are for sure.

I would guess that the ones I got a few years ago were intended for seed stock and just never got used. Too bad more types of beans aren't grown in commercial quantities for eating purposes. I may have to go rattle the cage of the feller I got the last batch from and make him tell me the source, he seems to be too busy to answer his phone or e-mails.

beans
 

I recieved the beans yesterday. I will plant a few this week. I am going to try to get an answer from the botanical garden at UGA. Clemson also has a heirloom garden dept.
Have you planted them before? I wonder what the days are to maturity ...
Angie

Wow, that was quick.

If as I suspect, they are Aztec half-runners http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_...tem_no=PS15366, they should mature in 60-75 days.

Bare & Paquebot, you are my kind of people! With enough beans I don't need meat! I like meat, but love beans. :rolleyes:

Bare, I received the pack of beans on Saturday. It's probably too late to plant this year (zone 6a) so will have to wait till next year. :Bawling:

I'll send you some when they get going...might take awhile to get a couple hundred lbs., though. Thanks again! :)

Oh, by the way...this is the first bean I've seen that I have to take a bite of :)

I did more searching around for more info on the potato beans and found one mention of 90 days for maturity. For such a large bean, I'd suspect that the 90 days might be closer. Same source also had my Red Ball at 105 days which could explain why I haven't seen a single blossom yet. I see now that it may be a bit iffy up here.

My Black Tepary beans produced nearly 4 gallons. My daughter-in-law immediately asked for a quart of them. She is from Colombia and should know what to do with black beans. I've always just added them to the soup bean mix but will be keeping them separate this time. There's still about 40' of Black Turtle Beans to mature and I don't want to mix them in case I like one better than the other.

Martin

You think they're big now, wait until you see them puppies cooked! The amazing thing though is the flavor! I actually taught my daughter-in-law the joys of being a "beaner" with those beans, which in part is why I HAVE to locate another source.