Lambada

Pole/Dry. 115 days to first dry 6 inch long and 3/4 inch wide pods some containing up to 5 seeds. Boldly marked seed seem to contrast more strongly than many horticultural types. From Søren Holt of Kastrup, Denmark. He had purchased these in a market in Irkutsk, Siberia. The pods become gorgeously and brightly aflame with red streaks and patches as the seed inside matures.

Landfrauen

Pole Snap. 60 days to snaps. Plant produces long round green pods with purple stripping. A Swiss heirloom obtained From the Central Tree Crops Research Trust in New Zealand from their New Zealand Bean Project. It's German name translates to english as Country Woman. Possibly grown by farmers wives in kitchen gardens.

Leslie Tenderpod

Pole/Snap. Very productive old time bean. 108 days for first dry seed. Round green 4 inch long pods wrinkle as they dry. Green pods are tender and stringless when cooked. Can also be used as a dry bean. From the mountain region of Eastern Kentucky.

Lila Stuart

Bush/Dry 90 to 110 days to dry seed. A bean from the Wanigan collection I originally grew back in the early 1980's. 18 inch tall plants (45cm). The bean comes out of early SSE member Ernest B. Dana's collection of Etna, N.H. in the 1970’s. Reacquired from an Oregon SSE member, who acquired it from a Washington SSE member, who originally got the bean from me. The circle has been completed.

Lilaschecke

Pole/Snap/Wax 70 days to short stringless yellow pods. Plants climb to about 8 feet. Comes from the Moravia region of the Chech republic.

Lina Sisco Bird Egg

Bush/Dry. 85 days to dry seed. Blossom, Light pink. High yields on 14 inch upright plants without runners. Produces 6 inch pods. Seed is marked like many horticultural beans. Brought to Missouri by Lina Sico's grandmother in the 1880's by covered wagon. Lina Sisco was one of the original six members of Seed Savers Exchange in 1975.

Liscek

Pole/Dry. 95 days to first dry pods. Blossom white. 6 inch pods borne on productive plants. Obtained from a grower in Willich, Germany. Original country of origin Slovenia.

Little Brown Cat

Semi-Runner/Dry. Blossom white. Viney tall plant. 90 days to dry beans which are small to medium in size. Productive, and easy to shell. Another original bean variety from the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota.

Little Brown Eagle

Bush Dry. Blossom White. 6 to 7 inch green pods on 16 inch tall plants. Pods are easy to hand shell when dry. 88 days to first dry pods. Then pods dry sequentially over about 3 weeks. Very Productive. From the Robert Lobitz legacy beans that I have been working with since 2015.

Little Falls

Bush Dry. Blossom Lavender. 6 to 7 inch pods on 20 inch tall plants. 86 days to first dry pods. Then pods dry sequentially over about 3 weeks. Very Productive, and easy to hand shell. A Robert Lobitz legacy bean that I have worked with since 2015.

Littlefields Special

Bush/Dry. 80 days to dry pods. Growth similar to Jacobs Cattle. Similar pods, pod set, and plant height. Good for short growing seasons. The seedcoat color is patterned the same as Jacobs Cattle and to me more of a darker purple than Black Trout, and Black And White Trout.

Lohrey's Special

Pole, snap, shell, dry use. Blossom mauve. First dry pods in about 90 days. Dry seed is easy to shell with it's thin pod walls. Pods are 8 inches long slightly flattened. Seed flattened. Has been grown by the Royce Lohrey family of Tasmania for over 70 years.

Logan Giant

Pole/Snap 70 Days to delicious snaps. Vigorous climber 12 to 15 feet. Productive of 6 inch long pods. An old West Virginia heirloom.

Louisiana

Pole Snap. A.K.A. Louisiana Snap. 75 days to snaps and 100 to first dry seed. Heavy yields of green pods streaked with purple. 8 to 9 seeds per pod. Pods remain tender for an extended period. Another of my all time favorite pole snap varieties. People who have gotten this bean from me tell me what a great bean it is to grow and enjoy.

Madelia

Bush Snap. 76 days to first dry pod. Large productive plants produce 5-6 inch round green pods. A Robert Lobitz original named bean he introduced through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 2004. Seeds are identical in appearance to another of Robert Lobitz's beans called Alice Sunshine but larger, seeds, plants and pods.

Maggies Cresent

Bush/Snap. Blossom white, 90 plus days to dry seed. Productive, 4 to 5 seeds in 5 inch pods. Said to be a cross of Magpie and Jumbo. More of the Robert Lobitz introduced beans.

Magpie

Bush Snap. 50+ days for snaps and 90 days for dry seed. Plants are good size erect 15 to 18 inches tall, runnerless. Long 5.25 x 5/16 inch smooth pods very similar in appearance to Painted Pony and Vermont Appaloosa. Introduced as Superlative by Sutton of England in 1909. Magpie was introduced from France in 1913. Eventually both varieties were found to be identical.

Maine

Bush/Dry. Nearly 90 days to dry seed. One of the many yellow eye type beans such as Maine Yellow Eye, Vermont Yellow Eye, and Molasses Face. A new addition to the collection in 2014 from Mandy's Greenhouse in Tyndall, Manitoba Canada.

Maine Sunset

Bush/Dry. Nearly 90 days to dry seed. Beautiful rounded plump seed with a large red figure around the eye with a bit of buff mottling in it. The name would suggest a Maine heirloom. Looks very similar to Rockwell.

Major Cook's

Pole. Productive plants climb over 8'. 5.5" pods splashed bright red turn deep purple as pods become curved before drying. Multi purpose. Pods are fiberless, thick walled and juicy with a strong flavor. Sweet rich and pleasant. If you eat the whole beans they will stay intact in a casserole. The texture is buttery, silky, rich and sweet. British citizen Harold Luxton was in France during WW1. He returned to work as a gardener for the War Graves Commission under a Major Cook. Breeding a bean to their liking. Luxton was awarded a British Empire medal from the Royal Horticultural Society for his work.

Mammoth Trout

Bush dry bean grows without runners. Productive here in a northern Illinois summer. Plants do not look uniquely different than many other beans. A variety that was part of John Withee's Wanigan collection and donated to him by the late SSE member Ernest B. Dana of Etna, N.H.

Mariazeller

Pole/Dry. 115 days to first dry pods. A strong climber produces round green pods 4 x ½ inches long that wrinkle as they dry. The variety came to me from a grower in Leibenfels, Austria. The beans name translates to from Mariazell. The name is a reference to Mariazell Basilica, also known as Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary. It is the most important pilgrimage destination in Austria, and one of the most visited shrines in Europe. This is a very lovely bean. The seeds are really beautiful, very large and round with a mix of white and red colouring with goldish caramel flecks over the red overlay.

Maria Zeller

Bush/Dry. 85 days. Acquired from a young lady by the name of Andrea Jones in the U.K. in early 2012. She was having trouble keeping the bean going. I got her last two seeds. Increased them to over 1200. I was happy to have saved her bean for her and she was pleased to receive an nice sample of seed from me after two seasons.

Mazeppa

Bush/Dry. First dry pods begin in about 82 days. This bean is a Robert Lobitz named and introduced variety. The seed coat of this bean has a similar coloring and patterning as another or Robert's beans called Canoe. Productive compact plants that grow without runners to about 15 inches tall.

Medal Refugee

Bush/Snap. Bred and introduced by the Asgrow seed company of New Haven, Conecticut. Introduced to the public in 1942. One of the great classic snap beans of the World War II era. Excellent round green pods. Parentage is United States 5 x Round Pod Kidney Wax.

Midnight Black Turtle Soup

Semi Runner/Dry. 90 days to first dry pods. Blossom violet. Highly productive plants. Usually the most productive of my bush or semi runners every season they are grown. Produces the largest volume of beans by total weight. Bears large quantities of pods. Developed at Cornell University. Pleasant flavor in black bean soup.

Midnight Blue

Semi Runner dry. 85 days to dry beans. Blossom: pink. Productive plants produce beautiful purple 5.5 inch pods. An original bean named and introduced by Robert Lobitz through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 2001.

Minnesota Beauty

Bush dry. 104 days to first dry pods. A bit Later than other early dry bush varieties. Large bush plants grow without runners and very dark foliage. Productive, 10 plants produced nearly one pound of seed when grown here in northern Illinois. A Robert Lobitz Legacy bean. In 2015 I had received a box of beans that Robert would have likely worked with if he had lived beyond 2006. This bean developed from one of those legacy beans.

Minnesota 1940's

Semi-Runner/Dry. 85 days to first dry pods. Viney climbing plants that are more productive if grown on support. This bean had been grown and was collected in Minnesota during the 1940's. The beans name would seem to suggest that the original name is unknown and it's current name now is reflective of the place and time of it's discovery.

Missouri Bill's

Semi Runner/Dry. 95 days to first dry pods. Obtained from the Ozark Seed Bank. 5.5 inch long pods contain 3 to 5 large horticultural type beans. Productive plants that are viney semi-runner type. Would benefit from growing on some type of support.

Molasses Face

Semi Runner/Dry. 80 Days to first dry pods. Another old time New England favorite for soup and baked beans. Plants are productive having a twinning habit and will climb a support. I have grown this variety on the ground like a bush bean, but are best supported for larger quantity of quality seed. Short green round pods about 4 to 5 seeds per pod.

Monachelle Di Trevio

Pole/Dry. Productive Italian variety grown in central Italy. A rare variety grown by only a small number of farmers there. Likely the beans originates from the town of Trevio as di Trevio translates as of Trevio. Produced an excellent high quality seed crop when grown here in northern Illinois.

Mona Lisa

Pole/Dry. A beautiful bean from a bean friend in Liebenfels, Austria. The first time this variety was planted in the summer of 2015. 8 seeds were planted and I had harvested back nearly a thousand seeds.

Money

Bush/Dry. Dry beans begin at around 80 days. Seedcoat is patterned much like Jacob's Cattle except with a third color mottled into the darker red areas of the seed. The variety was developed in England.

Mostoller Wild Goose

Pole/Dry. 100 DTM. Flower white. Plants are vigorous, productive. Pods are flattened, wide which average about 4 seeds per pod. In autumn of 1865 one of the two sons of Joseph Mostoller shot a lone goose in Somerset county Pennsylvania. Upon prepping the goose for a meal Joseph's Wife Sara found the unusual beans in the goose's crop. Dried and planted them in the spring of 1866. The bean is still with us after five generations.

Mrociumere

Bush/Dry. 90+ days to dry seed. Blossom white. 15 inch tall high yielding upright plants. 6 inch oval pods. Origin Kenya.

Mulldoon

Bush/Dry. 82 days to first dry pods. Then pods dry sequentially. Blossom white. 18 to 20 inch tall high yielding upright plants grow without runners. 7 & 1/4 inch long slender oval pods. A bean I have named, having grown this bean and watched it with interest every year since it's discovery in it's seed mother Jacob's Cattle Amish in 2014.

Neptune

Pole/Lima. Another lima variety that I had obtained from unlisted SSE member E.P. Griggs in 1980. He sent this one along with several others without a name including Ganymede. So I tagged this one Neptune.

New Mexico Red Appaloosa

Pole/Snap. 90 Days to dry seed. Light vines are very productive. Pod set comes late in the season.

Nez Perce

Semi runner productive dry bean. Early maturing. Easy shelling pods. Native American variety grown by the Nez Perce people.

Nigel

Bush dry. 100+ DTM. Very productive plants about 20 inches tall. 4.5 inch slightly wrinkled easy to hand shell pods. It has a small seed size but produces them profusely. Wayne James of Tierra Farms in California had gotten the bean from Nigel Walker of Eat Well farms in that state. My donor from Catasauqua, Pennsylvania had obtained this bean at the Appalachian Seed Swap in Pikeville, Kentucky in 2018 before sending me the bean in the autumn of 2019.

North Pole

Pole/Large Lima. 100+ DTM. Originally called Winfield as it originated with a Mrs. Winfield of Painted Post, NY. Introduced to the seed trade by the Billy Hepler Seed Company starting in 1953. Billy started his company at the age of 12. A cross of Cowey and Christmas Limas. The original cross likely occurred in the 1940’s. After Billy’s dad passed in 1962, Hepler's inventory was sold to Farmer Seed & Nursery Company of Faribault, MN. Farmer's 1965 catalog states North Pole is new to their listings. No reference to North Pole can seem to be found anywhere prior to Farmer’s release in 1965. The name was probably changed for commercial reasons.

North Star

Pole/Lima. Large Seeded. 100+ days to first dry seed. I have grown this variety successfully in northern Illinois back in the early 80's. Mild flavor. 35 seeds to the ounce.

North Star Bush Pinto

Bush dry bean. Productive, 85 Days to the start of first dry pods. The remainder of the pinto crop usually drys within three weeks depending on the weather. An original bean released in 1999 by the late Robert Lobitz of Paynesville, Minnesota. Said to be the very first true bush pinto.

Nova Star

Pole/Dry. Productive variety from a northern California gardener Marshall Smyth who found this bean among his Mayflower beans in 2012.

Nun's Belly Button

Bush dry bean. 90 days to first dry seed. Upright plants without runners. Looks similar to a soldier bean. This one came from the private collection of an employee of Garden Organic, formerly known as the Henry Doubleday Research Association.

Ohio Pole

Pole/Dry. About 95 days to first dry pods. Heavy producer of large 8 inch long pods. Lots of vineage needs good support. This late eighteenth century heirloom grown by the Miami people of Kekionga (present day Fort Wayne Indiana), as well as by the Delaware, Shawnee and Potawatomi peoples.

Orca

Bush/Dry. 90+ days to dry seed. A.K.A. Calypso, Yin Yang. Productive plants grow to 17 inches tall, upright with out runners.

Orca ( Double Helix Strain )

Semi-Runner/Dry. Another bean by the name of Orca. The grower is the Double Helix farm in Conway, Arkansas who had received it from Canadian resident the late Dan McMurray. Dan was a customer and friend of the Double Helix Farm. This seed is different from the bean that I have come to know as Orca which has the large blotch of black on a rounder seed surrounding the eye against a white background.

Oregon Giant

Pole/Snap. Blossom pink. Green pods 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 inches long, marked with brownish purple. 7 to 8 seeds per pod. Plants are vigorous climbers. Of western U.S. origins. A long time favorite in the Pacific Northwest. Had been grown for the canning industry from the 1930's to the 70's.

Osborne And Clyde

Pole/Dry. 90+ days to dry seed. Vigorous climbing plants. Green short flat pods with reddish purple mottling. Pods are easy to hand shell as the pod walls are thin.

Owl's Head

Semi Runner/Dry. Some say they have grown this bean on supports as a pole bean. I have always grown this bean on the ground like a bush. Lately however I have grown it on handy panels that you can purchase at Tractor Supply Store. An outcross with an interesting looking seed from Seed Savers Exchange member Will Bonsall (Scattered Seed Project) of Industry, Maine. I had grown this one in the early 80's. Seems as if it could be unstable as it throws off different seedcoat patterns. However more recent growings seem to show very little to no off types being produced.

Painted Pony

Bush/Snap/Dry. Blossom white. About 60 days to snaps and 90 days to the first dry bean pods. Pick green pods while young before advanced seed development becomes apparent for delicious snaps. A native variety to Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Compact plants with long green slender pods about 6 to 7 inches with 4 to 6 seeds per pod.

Pale Face

Bush/Dry. Dry pods begin to dry sequentially in about 85 days. 18 inch tall plants stand upright and grow without runners. Oval green pods 5 x 1/2 inch. Very productive, white seed, plump, short, yellow eye size with a light flesh toned figure around the eye remains light in tone over a long period, but will eventually darken to look like a yellow eye. Also more productive than any yellow eye I have ever grown. Easy to hand shell. For soup or baked beans. Discovered in my gardens and named by me in 1979. Seed mother is Owl's Head.

Pale Grey Lavender

Semi Runner/Dry. 90+ days to first dry pods. Early, beautiful and productive. Most productive if supported on a low 4 foot tall fence keeping the drying pods off the soil. The seed looks better in person than in a photo. Heavy pod set. A European variety originating in Croatia.

Palomino

Bush/Dry. 90+ days to first dry pods. Green oval pods. Another one of John Withee's Wanigan beans reacquired from an Oregon gardener and SSE member in the winter of 2013.