Heirloom Beans in Markets

Is it my imagination or is it difficult to find heirloom beans in the market? I've been trying to find Adzuki bean for the past two weeks in order to make a particular recipe.  I figured my typical organic natural foods market would carry it since that's where we'd generally pick them up. They weren't there.  I then went to a national natural food market and they didn't have any.  So off to a couple of gourmet markets.  They didn't have any.  What a surprise!  I guess once I finally find them I'll need to buy a few extra to plant so I can save my own seed.

We've started several beans in the garden but with the scarcity of quality heirloom beans I'm thinking of starting more to save.  

Do you know of a source to purchase heirloom beans for bulk purchase for recipes?

Seed Trades

One of my garden friends from abroad invited me to engage in a nice seed trade which I thought was a splendid idea.  We should do the same, actually.  Since the majority of my country is currently under snow, let's welcome Spring by trading garden seeds.  I'm open to trading both flowers and vegetables with an obvious preference for heirlooms but open pollinated varieties are great too.  No hybrids, please, as I'd like to save the seeds and offer them to the club.  Really looking to add to the lettuce collection but am open to everything - especially the unusual with an interesting history. And this is an international trade so anyone else from abroad is welcomed (as long as your country accepts the importation of seeds).

Please send me the list of items you'd like and what you have to trade.  I'm thinking it would probably be easiest if I post what's currently available for you to choose?

Thanks and looking forward to it!  You're welcomed to send an email with your list of gems to me directly.  Here's the e-address. 

2010 Heirloom Club Trials :: Corn & Beans

Now, it's probably a ridiculous concept to trial corn and beans to most since this has been done time and time again. But, there are more bean and corn seeds that were part of the 2009 master garden plan than were actually planted in the garden. There were about 15 varieties of corn and about 20 varieties of beans.

Brother...

I germinated about 10 of those varieties and only 2 varieties made it into the ground. Oh, it wasn't because there was anything wrong with the plants, I just couldn't find the time to do the gardening I wanted to do. It seems the recession made stable businesses panic as much as those that were on the brink and as a result, we got worked close to the brink of not having a life.

Sadly, there are just as many bean and corn seeds on the new 2010 order list so this means we're going to need a little bit of help. It would be great if we could have our own bean and corn trials where we each take a variety and report back to the club on which was best and why. I'm growing more Country Gentlemen since we never seem to get enough and I'm thinking about a popcorn variety - just for the fun of it.

Let me know if you're interested and if you are, I'll post the list of varieties that are available that I can send to you.

By the way, I had just as many tomato and pepper plants too. They've managed to continue growing amidst the winter chill. And the saddest part? Most of those corn and bean plants grew mini vegetables in the small containers they were started in. Some of them were given away before the plants matured in their small cells but many, unfortunately, produced Barbie sized vegetables. Got to give them credit for being tenacious.

By the way, did anyone plant sweet peas this year? The plants seem to be exceptional this year and I haven't quite figured out why.

Tomatoes

I hate tomatoes...think I've said that before, probably too many times. But, it never fails we start more tomatoes than we could possibly ever plant or consume unless we lived on several hundred acres (okay, I'm exaggerating a bit). This year is no different. Over a week ago, after ordering 50 new tomato varieties, we planted 18 varieties and 54 seeds.

I'm considering counseling...