image of Gila beans

Gila River

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. 100+ days for dry seed. The story I had read on this variety was that it was found at a native American site in a cave along the Gila river in the southwest. Seeds were found in a pottery jar sealed with pine sap. The site was dated at 1,500 years ago. The temperature and humidity level never fluctuated in all those years keeping the seed viable. Amazing if it's true. There was also a black and white bean just like it called Gila River, and one patterned like this too but more in a true red called Gila. I had grown both of those beans back in the early 1980's as an early member of the Seed Savers Exchange.

image of Gillenwater beans

Gillenwater

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Semi Runner Dry. 100 Days to first dry pods. Productive plants and a little bit later maturing than most of my dry beans that I grow. Seedcoat color and pattern like many horticultural beans. A West Virginia heirloom.

image of Gill's Deliciois Giant beans

Gill's Delicious Giant

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. A.K.A. Delicious Giant. 70 days for snaps and 100 days for dry seed. Introduced by the Gill Brothers Seed Company of Portland, Oregon in 1925. A cross between Oregon Giant and Kentucky Wonder. Quite unusual in size of pods and pod clusters. Earlier more prolific, and pods are longer and more slender than those of Oregon Giant.

image of Goldener Regen beans

Goldener Regen

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. Another of several varieties sourced for me during the winter of 2013 by Harriet Mella of Austria from Deaflora seeds in Germany.

image of Golden Bear Lake beans

Golden Bear Lake

Pakect Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Very productive light toned beans of good quality. From the Robert Lobitz legacy material I had obtained in 2015 from a former member of the Seed Savers Exchange. This might have been a bean that Robert would have work on had he lived many more years past 2006. About 85 days to begining of dry pods then the remainder of it's pods dry sequentially over about 3 weeks.

image of Golden Lima beans

Golden Lima

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. 90 or more days to dry seed. This is actually not a lima variety, but it's flattened seed makes it somewhat resemble a lima.

image of Golden Valley beans

Golden Valley

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Approximately 85 days to first dry pods. Another of the Robert Lobitz named and introduced varieties. Robert having been a member of the Seed Savers Exchange based in Decroah, Iowa. First released this bean to the public through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in the early 2000's. Productive plants grow to about 18 inches in height. 6 inch solid green pods average 5 seeds per pod.

image of Good Mother Stallard beans

Good Mother Stallard

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. 95+ days to dry seed. Strong climber to about 6 feet. Very attractive seed. Stewed beans have a reported creamy texture. This heirloom bean is also resistant to BCMV the mosaic virus. The bean dates back to the 1930's. Donated to John Withee's Wanigan Associates sometime the late 1970's or early 80's. John named the bean after his donor Carrie Belle Stallard of Wise county Virginia.

image of Graines de Cafe beans

Graines de Cafe

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. Sent to me as a gift by an Austrian gardener Harriet Mella. It's name basically translates into English as Coffee Beans. Very productive. The growing of just 8 plants in 2014 produced nearly 2 pounds (910 grams) of the beautiful beans.

image of Grandma's Shell beans

Grandma's Shell

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Bush productive red horticultural variety grows without runners. Large plump oval dark red seed mottled with light tan. Dries pods a little later than most early dry bean types. John Withee listed this bean in his Wanigan Associates catalog in the 1970's. The first copy of which I had seen in 1978. John listed his source for the bean in his bean collection notes as June Bester of Butler, Pennsylvania.

image of Great Lakes Special beans

Great Lakes Special

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. First dry pods in about 90 days. Large wide productive plants 22 inches in height. A Robert Lobitz named and introduced variety.

image of Greek Cypriot beans

Greek Cypriot

Packet Size 20 seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. I don't know anything of this beans history at this point in time. I can tell you that it was sent to me by a Candian gardener who lives on Victoria Island. This lady only sends me beans that she feels are really good.

image of Greencrop beans

Greencrop

SOLD OUT - To Be Regrown In 2024

Bush/Snap. Blossom white, about 90 days for dry beans 50 to 60 days for green snaps. Excellent green flat pods with heavy yields that mature nearly at once. This is one of my favorite old commercial varieties still sold today. Released to the public in 1956. Bred by Albert F. Yaeger and Elwyn Meader at the USDA facility of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H. A 1957 AAS winner. A cross between Bountiful and Streamliner. Widely adapted.

image of Green Savage beans

Green Savage

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole Green Snap. Bred by the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station in Baton Rouge and released by Reuter Seed Co. in 1949. A cross between Savage Wonder and Canfreezer. It's a southern adapted bean noted for being stringless, high yielding and high quality and straight podded with bean rust resistance. Grew outstandingly well here in my 2018 northern Illinois garden.

image of Hanna Hank beans

Hanna Hank

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. 70 to 80 days to first snaps. Acquired this bean from a Seeds Of Diversity Canada member from London, Ontario who sourced the variety from Hanna Hank's family. Upon seeing photos of this seed on various websites the bean struck me as to how similar it looked to a bean John Withee carried in his Wanigan catalog called Ramshorn which I had also grown in the early 80's.

image of Hashuli beans

Hashuli

Packet Size 15 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. The variety was purchased in a market in Tbilisi, Georgia by American seed and plant collector Joseph Simcox (The Botanical Explorer). The seller had told Joseph that the bean came from a village called Hashuli hence the name. The bean is a very uncommon form even for Georgia.

image of Hawick beans

Hawick

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush Dry. First dry pods in about 90 days. Blossom white. Very productive plants that produce 4.5 inch pods. An original bean named and introduced through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook by the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota. He was an early member of the Seed Savers Exchange since the early 1980's. The bean does appear in the 2001 SSE yearbook. Named after the village of Hawick, Minnesota located southwest of Paynesville in Kandiyohi county along state highway 23.

image of Hebron Bean beans

Hebron

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. A new bean I've named and had my eye on for about five years, seems stable enough to offer to bean lovers. This bean is a distant relative of White Robin that I started growing in 2012.

image of Heiling's Bean beans

Heiling's Bean

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. I have loved this bean since first seeing it on a trip to my brother's house in Browerville, Minnesota, October 1978. Grown in their garden that summer. They got it from a neighbor. A sweet lady by the name of Kate Heiling. Kate didn't remember what it was called. So I named it Heiling's Bean. For a bush variety I have seen other round white beans close in size, but this one always seems just a bit larger.

image of Hemelvaartboontje beans

Hemelvaartboontje

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. A gift from a gardener in Germany to my Austrian friend Harriet Mella, and then gifted to me. This bean has been known in Australia for over a century.

image of Hiawatha beans

Hiawatha

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. 93 days to first dry seeds. Early for a pole variety. Very productive. Began as an outcross and named by me. Now seems stable. Good for soups and baked bean dishes.

image of Holy Bean beans

Holy Bean

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap/Dry? The seedcoat is very similar to Leslie Tenderpod. This climber comes to me via the Central Tree Crops Research Trust in New Zealand from their New Zealand Bean Project. Thanks to Mark Christensen, Research Director of the Trust for being a willing bean swapper.

Hopi Black

Packet Size 40 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. Vines to 5 feet, very productive. Small black seed, can be used for dye, extremely drought resistant, Desert variety from the American Southwest. Said to not need watering. Small beans cook quickly and are quite tasty. Often a small seeded variety will out produce larger seeded beans in total volume.

image of Horn Speckled beans

Horn Speckled

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Lima. 110+ days to first dry seeds. Short pods not as flattened as most limas. Plants are a prolific bearer of pods. I had grown this variety in the 1980's. Obtained it from a SSE member, but never kept of a record of who it was from.

image of Horsehead beans

Horsehead

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Blossom: White. 80+ days for dry seed. Productive sprawling plants which are drought tolerant with round pods that are easy to hand shell. This one was originally acquired from the Henry Doubleday Research Association in the United Kingdom around 1980. Today HDRA is known as Garden Organic.

image of Hurley beans

Hurley

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Lima. This is a lima discovered here in 2014 that comes out of Stevenson's lima. It's very productive. Lots of small pods with about three beans per pod. I personally like white beans as you can add any flavor to them without the bean overpowering your flavor.

image of Ice beans

Ice

Packet Size 40 Seeds $5.00

Semi-Runner/Snap. 55 days to snaps and 95 days to dry beans. Considered a wax variety although I don't know why. The pods are not yellow, but a very light green nearly white. Small very productive plants with a slight vining habit.

image of Idaho Marrow beans

Idaho Marrow

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Semi Runner Dry. There have been many different variety names of Marrow beans both pole and bush. They were very popular in this country in the 1850's as a baking bean. Also good in soup with a creamy texture.

image of Idaho Refugee beans

Idaho Refugee

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. 5 to 6 inch green stringless pods. Blossom Pink. Plants very productive, viney with lots of branches, tall, spreading and grows short tendrils at the top of it's growth but does not climb Idaho Refugee was bred by Walter Pierce and J.C. Walker. A mosaic resistant bush type released through the University of Idaho. An All American Selections winner in 1934. One of the first BCMV resistant varieties created as the result of deliberate breeding. A joint breeding program between the University of Idaho and Wisconsin. Parentage is Corbett Refugee and Stringless Green Refugee. Idaho Refugee is often used in the breeding of newer snap bean varieties.

image of Illinois Giant beans

Illinois Giant

Packet Size 10-12 Seeds $5.00

Pole Lima. Very productive. First dry pods in about 85 to 90 days. Vines can grow to 12 feet. Originally a cross of Dr. Martin and Christmas limas. First listed in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 1992 by SSE member Glenn Cooper resident of the state of Massachusetts. Glenn had obtained the bean from former Polo, Illinois resident, the late Merlyn Niedens in 1991.

image of Illinois Snap beans

Illinois Snap

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. Upright plants without runners. 50 days for excellent green oval snap pods. Blossom pink. Discovered in 1979 named by me as an outcross occurring in the mid 70's, and now stable. Grown in 2014 to test it's eating qualities. Found to be stringless, and tender with more body, than many snap varieties, and of excellent flavor.

image of Illinois Wax beans

Illinois Wax

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Wax. Yellow podded snap bean. Upright plants grow without runners. This is the sister companion to Illinois snap. A product of my gardens and named by me in the late 70's. Grown for the beans eating qualities in 2014. Found to be tender and stringless with good snap bean flavor.

image of Illinois Wild Goose beans

Illinois Wild Goose

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. About 104 days to dry seed. Discovered in my bean gardens back in 1979, and named by me. Referenced in my bean book "Hill Of Beans" which can be viewed at SSE's Heritage Farm Library. No record of what variety it was found in. I liked the story of the Mostoller Wild Goose and liked the wild goose names. So I decided that I wanted to get into the wild goose naming business at least one time.

image of Indian beans

Indian

SOLD OUT

Bush/Dry. 90+ days to first dry seed. Red Kidney type seed with large tall plants about 24 inches high.

image of Indian Mound beans

Indian Mound

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. I grew this bean in the early 80's. Had been traded around by Seed Saver Exchange members from 1983-89 before disappearing from the yearbook. It was listed on my bean wants list in the yearbook. Suddenly in 2016 an Oregon SSE member sent it to me and said he had been keeping it since the mid 1980's. He had difficulty keeping it more productive in his Oregon climate. Maturity time has been described from 90 to 120 days. That could be for shelly's or for longer maturity time for dry beans.

image of Iroquois Cornbread beans

Iroquois Cornbread

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. 105 days to first dry pods. Productive plants grow with straight pods. Used in traditional cornbreads. Iroquois nations had other names for this bean. Tuscorora Bread, and Skaroora Bread are just two more. From corn collector extraordinaire, and all around traditionl plant variety caretaker Stephen Smith of Guthrie, Kentucky.

image of Jacob's Cattle Amish beans

Jacob's Cattle Amish

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Don't know if this is a Jacob's Cattle strain or just a look-a-like. From a gardener in the Netherlands. Longer more slender pods than the Jacob's Cattle, and more productive. The color pattern remains more true than does the strains of Jacob's Cattle grown in our very warm U.S. summers

image of Jembo Polish beans

Jembo Polish

Packet Size 15 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. Blossom fuchsia. A rare large Seeded Snap that should be better known by gardeners. Impressive productive plants produce tasty green snap pods, or the soft immature seed can be used as a shell bean. Can be direct seeded when daytime temperatues reach into the 60's in well drained loose soil. Discovered this variety at Bill Best's Sustainable Mountain Agricultural Center seed swap in 2015. A wonderful seed swap event. The first weekend in October in Berea, Kentucky.

image of Jeminez beans

Jiminez

Packet Size 15 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Snap. Blossom white. 60 days to first snaps. Vines can grow to 10 feet. However I have grown them on shorter single poles. Handsome green flattened pods nearly 10 inches to 1 foot long become brilliantly shaded in solid red as seeds mature. Bears over a long season. Also said to be good for delicious shell beans. Easy to hand shell as pod walls are thin.

image of John's Bean beans

John's Bean

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 85, Good short season dry bean. Very beautiful productive variety. Grown more extensively in Canada but does very well here in the U.S.

image of Junin beans

Junin

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. A beautiful bright pink seed. Especially when harvested new. Plants are very productive, healthy, and robust that grow to 24 inches tall. Seed pictured was grown in the 2013 growing season. From Astid Storm of Jevenstedt, Germany. According to USDA documents this bean was said to be from an Andean gene pool, wild common beans, from an area around Junin, Peru.

Kabarovsk

Packet Size 15-18 Seeds $5.00

Pole Dry. Russian variety from Khabarovsk, Siberia. XL sized seed is somewhat rounded plump and expands even more when cooked. Flavor may remind you of delicious creamy potatoes. Very productive plants. Pods are gorgeous and aflame with red streaks and patches as the seed matures.

image of Kay Snap beans

Kay Snap

Packet size 30 seeds $5.00

Bush/Snap. 85 days to first dry pods, and about 50 days to green round podded snaps. Seed mother is Kishwaukee Green.

image of Keewatin beans

Keewatin

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 85 days to dry beans. Another variety of the large bean legacy left behind by the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota. Named after Keewatin, Minnesota located in Itasca county. Robert named most of his beans for towns and places in his state.

image of Kenearly beans

Kenearly

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 85 days to dry beans. Another of the yellow eye types bred in Kentville Nova Scotia Research Center to ripen the seed crop nearly all at once. My original source for seed of this bean comes from the Ozark Seed Bank.

image of Kifl Mucko beans

Kifl Mucko

Packet Size 30 Seeds $5.00

Pole/Dry. Gifted to me by Harriet Mella of Austria. A small cranberry cutshort type of seed. Very productive plants loaded with 2 and 1/2 to 3 inch (6 to 8cm) pods containing 6 to 7 seeds. The seeds are tightly packed close together in their pods at maturity. These plants produce as much or more volume of beans than do many larger seeded varieties. Also well formed seed with hardly ever any rejects.

image of Kishwaukee Yellow beans

Kishwaukee Green

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush/snap. Green podded. Discovered, as a segregation of Kishwaukee Yellow and named by me in 1978. Plants are very productive. Probably one of the most productive green beans I have grown. Pods are somewhat curved 6 to 7 inches long and stringless. Produces two other seed coat colors besides the photo. Same maturity time as Kishwaukee Yellow. The beans are named after the Kishwaukee river (from the Potawatomi language means "river of the Sycamore") that flows through 3 northern Illinois counties. The headwaters of the river is in Woodstock, Illinois.

image of Kishwaukee Yellow beans

Kishwaukee Yellow

Packet Size 35 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Wax Discovered, as a cross and named by me in 1977. Plants are very productive. Might be the most productive wax bean I have ever grown. Pods are somewhat curved 6 to 7 inches long and stringless. Produces two other seed coat colors besides the photo. Once sold by Amy Hawk (Simply Beans) in Calhan, Colorado. Had also been sold commercially by Horus Botanicals of Salem, Arkansas. There is a green podded companion called Kishwaukee Green that developed from seed grown out in 1978 of Kishwaukee Yellow. Named after the Kishwaukee river that flows through 3 northern Illinois counties. The headwaters of the river is in Woodstock, Illinois.

image of Kleine Soldatenboon beans

Kleine Soldatenboon

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. First dry pods in about 90 days. In English it's name translates to Small Soldier Bean. A lovely bean to be admired for it's own simple beauty. From a gardener in the Netherlands. Productive and excellent for stewing or baking where ever a white seeded bean would be required.

image of Knepley Forty Bushel beans

Kneply's Forty Bushel

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. Blossom: White. 80 days to dry seed. Seedcoat color and seed shape suggests to me a yellow eye bean. An Ohio family heirloom grown by Clayton Kneply. Upright plants are disease and drought tolerant.

image of Koronis Golden Navy beans

Koronis Golden Navy

Packet Size 50 Seeds $5.00

Semi runner dry. First dry pods in 83 days. Pods dry sequentially. Compact productive plants produce short 4 inch pods that contain 3 to 4 small light golden yellowish seeds. A Robert Lobitz named and introduced variety.

image of Koronis Purple beans

Koronis Purple

Packet Size 22 Seeds $5.00

Bush Large Seeded Dry Bean. 85 days to dry seed. Blossom: purple-pink. Tall plants produce 6 and quarter inch pods. An original bean variety from the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota.

image of Koronis Three Islands beans

Koronis Three Islands

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush/Dry. 94 Days to first dry pod in 2013. Blossom: Pale violet. 18 inch plants without runners produces short flat pods. I liked the way these plants continued to stand erect right on through the pod drying period during our 2013 growing season. Another of the bean originals by the Late Robert Lobitz. Introduced in 1997.

image of Koronis Yellow Eye beans

Koronis Yellow Eye

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush Dry. Blossom white. Grows without runners. Early with first dry pod in 73 days when grown here in northern Illinois. Three weeks to dry down it's entire pod set. An original bean named and introduced by Robert Lobitz through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 1999.

image of Kretser Soldier beans

Kretser Soldier

Packet Size 25 Seeds $5.00

Bush dry bean. Productive and grows without runners to about twenty inches tall. Plants, pods, and maturity similar in season with other soldier beans.

image of Lake Avenue Beauty beans

Lake Avenue Beauty

Packet Size 20 Seeds $5.00

Bush dry. Blossom pink. 6 inch pods streaked lighly in purple. 90 days to first dry pod then three weeks to dry it's entire pod set. An original bean named and introduced through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 2006 by Robert Lobitz. He named this bean after Lake Avenue in his hometown of Paynesville, Minnesota.

  

A Bean Collectors Window - Contact: upadam@comcast.net

Header Photo By Joseph Simcox - "The Botanical Explorer"