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This year we will have 29 varieties of heirloom bean seeds for sale. We will also have seeds of 5 heirloom tomato varieties (see later discussion). Three beans from years past will be missing due to poor growing conditions-the large Lazy Wife Greasy, the Margaret Best Greasy, and Ora's Speckled Bean. New for the first time this year will be: the Case Knife Bean, the Ram's Horn Bean, the Old Joe Clark Bean, the Small Lazy Wife Greasy, the Brown Tobacco Worm Bean, the Bill Leach Fall Bean, and the North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cut-short. The summer of 2007 was our toughest bean growing year since we first started in 1963. At the same time it was our best tomato growing year for the same reasons: a lot of hot and dry weather. We staggered our bean plantings in order to keep different varieties as isolated as possible, and weather conditions favored some and destroyed others. For example, we had over six hundred feet of Lazy Daisy beans planted and didn't get enough back to replenish the seeds planted. (The Lazy Daisy is one of the premier greasy beans.) They started blooming just at the time we had the hottest, driest and least humid weather of the summer. Although the beans were planted on plastic covered raised beds with drip irrigation under the plastic, the 95 degree heat and, especially, low humidity kept the young beans from getting more than an inch long before they dehydrated and dropped off. The same thing happened to a lesser degree to some of our other varieties. Add to the weather problems our first ever real problems with deer. A new neighbor across the road from our farm cut timber from the 200 acres he had just purchased and the deer that typically spent most of their time on his land moved over to ours. As a result we lost rows of several varieties to deer before we even knew we had a problem. The beans germinated and were eaten, completely, before we knew what was happening. Other beans that did reasonably well did not reach their full size, but we will be running germination tests to make sure of their viability. As a last resort for some varieties, we planted several rows of selected varieties in our two greenhouses. Some rows came on quite strong while those planted later did not do well with the cloudy weather and short days of November. The ones that did well were harvested the middle of December but seeds will not be available until the end of January to make sure they are properly dried out. Those varieties are noted with their descriptions. Bean seed offerings this year will include:
Jack Kelly Butterbean: a white seeded butterbean from Eastern Kentucky. Nickell Bean: Old fashioned white half-runner type from the Nickell family in Morgan County, Kentucky. More slender than most heirloom beans,
Striped Hull Greasy Cut-Short: From Jackson County, Kentucky, this bean is tightly packed with squared-off white beans. It is about three to four inches long and one of our best. Tennessee Cornfield: A brown-seeded bean from Harold and Bernease Wallace of Lexington, KY, this bean is originally from the Cumberland Plateau area of central Tennessee. Tobacco Worm Bean: Another top-selling heirloom bean, it is thought to have originated in the Estill/Lee County area of Eastern Kentucky. The large beans inside the hull make it look like a fat tobacco worm. It is one of the most plump and tender heirloom beans.
Barnes Mountain Cornfield Bean: From Barnes Mountain in Estill County, Kentucky, this is a long, plump, white-seeded cornfield bean of exceptional tenderness from Estill County, KY.
Edwards Bean: This is a brown striped bean from the Edwards family in Jackson County, KY and is very flavorful and tender. Goose Bean: This is a deep beige bean grown throughout Eastern Kentucky and parts of adjoining states. The original seeds were supposedly taken from the craw of a wild goose. The bean is popular over a wide area. Turkey Craw Bean: This is a brownish cornfield bean with a buff end. It is grown in the Cumberland Gap area of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee and popular over a wide area. The original seeds supposedly came from the craw of a wild turkey. Grady Bailly Greasy: This is a white-seeded greasy bean from Polk County, North Carolina. It is a very tender bean with large seeds. Mary Moore Greasy: This is a fairly short white-seeded greasy bean from Jackson County, Kentucky. Available after January of 2008
Anna Robe-Terry Bean: This bean is white seeded and very tender. It comes as two variants that have not yet been stabilized as two separate beans. From Anna Robe-Terry in West Virginia Additional beans are being offered this year for the first time: Brown Tobacco Worm Bean: This is a light brown bean similar in size to the white Tobacco Worm Bean. Given me by Sam Baker of Dry Branch Road in Estill County, Kentucky, it is also from the Estill/Lee County area of Eastern Kentucky. Ram's Horn Bean: This is a very slender and tender bean that has a distinctive hook on the end.
Case Knife Bean: This is a white bean that resembles a Case knife. There is also a brown-seeded Case Knife Bean which we hope to have available next year. Small Lazy Wife Greasy: This bean is from the same area in Madison County, North Carolina where the Lazy Wife Bean is found but smaller and less curved. Bill Leach Fall Bean: From the extended family of Bill Leach in Harlan County, KY this is the first time we have offered a Fall Bean. Fall Beans are also known in some areas as October Beans. This bean is white and stringless. We hope to have other Fall Beans available next year. Limit one packet per order North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cut-Short. This is one of the favorite beans of the Western Carolina Farmers Market. It is one of the longer greasy beans and somewhat tan with darker brown specks. It is also very tender. Tomato Seed Offerings this year will include: Vinson Watts Tomato: Offered the first time last year, this tomato has proven to be quite popular with many people. Vinson Watts has been improving his namesake tomato for fifty-two summers. The original seed stock was from Lee County, Virginia and given to him by his work supervisor at Berea College. Those interested in the story of this tomato can look it up on the internet since several articles have been written about Vinson Watts and his tomato. The tomato is a large pink tomato flavored with an excellent balance of sugars and acids Margaret Best Yellow Tommy Toe: Grown for many years by Margaret Best of Haywood County, NC, this yellow cherry type tomato is more acid than most modern hybrid yellow cherry tomatoes. It will dominate a salad and is also good for snacks. John Allen Yellow German: This small yellow German tomato has the yellow color and red stripes of its larger cousins but weighs only five to six ounces on average. It has the sweet flavor of the other yellow German types but is small enough to eat without having to keep part of it for another meal. It is thought to be an Amish heirloom. Black Pear: This is one of the best of the black tomatoes. It is pear shaped with a complex flavor and six to eight ounces in size. Yellow Pear: This is one of the old-time favorites for preserving (canning or pickling) and has a good flavor in salads or when eaten raw. Ordering Instructions: Send us a letter requesting the varieties of bean and tomatoes seeds you want to purchase and how many packets of each variety you wish to have along with your return address. We require payment before the seeds are shipped and will need a check or money order made out to SMAC. (Sorry, we don't accept credit card orders.) Mail your order to the following address: SMAC Beans are $6.00 per packet which includes packaging and postage. Packets of 100 seeds of any variety of beans except the Goose Bean or the Rose Bean contain 100 seeds. Packets of the Goose Bean contain fifty seeds while packets of the Rose Bean contain seventy five seeds. Tomato seeds are $4.00 per packet for thirty plus seeds which
includes packaging and postage. Please note that we are a not-for-profit organization and all of the money made from our seed distribution goes to help pay for the interns working for us each summer. If you have questions or comments, please e-mail me at bill_best@heirlooms.org (bill_best@heirlooms.org) or call me at 859-986-3204 after 8:00 p.m. eastern time. My mailing address is: Bill Best Note: We have been collecting Appalachian heirloom beans for over thirty years. Many of them are regional beans, but the vast majority are family beans which have been in families for generations. We don't always acquire them in a pure state so you might find some beans in your garden that do not appear to be true to form. When you are saving seeds (as we hope you do) to plant the following summer, try to keep those plants isolated as much as possible and save those that are most true to form. On the other hand, if you have a bean that is notably different from the others, you might wish to save it separately since it might be a true breeding cross or mutation. Such is the way new varieties come about. We have found it best to store bean seeds in a refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container. If allowed to become too warm, they might become infested with bean weevils and this can become a serious problem. Also note that our Goose Beans, which are more prone to cross
than other beans, were grown in complete isolation this year by
Michael Best and his daughters, Sarah and Anita, in Cookeville,
Tennessee where he is an agricultural economics professor at Tennessee
Tech.
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