by Richard Hebda | Jul 26, 2022 | Heritage Beans
Several years ago, I bought an attractive speckled bean in a local grocery store in Villanova, in Catalunya (Catalonia, Spain). Villanova is a small rural and vacation town about 45 minutes along the coast from Barcelona (Figure 1). When I asked the shop attendant if...
by Richard Hebda | Jan 13, 2022 | Heritage Beans
Tiny gifts can bring huge surprises. Let me tell you about an incredible bean with a 70-year history on Canada’s Vancouver Island… a story of saving and growing bean seeds in one community for decades and an excellent example of the “Many eggs in many baskets”...
by Richard Hebda | Jan 12, 2022 | Heritage Beans
There are many pretty beans in the world, the speckled varieties in the “cranberry” group such as Mediterranean borlotti types come to mind. But how many beans are really “beautiful”, visual candy to the eye. Tiger’s Eye bean, also known in Spanish as Ojo de Tigre or...
by Richard Hebda | Sep 3, 2021 | Heritage Beans
Part of a series on growing heritage bean varieties for local food sustainability A few years ago I was gifted about 10 small white beans from a volunteer at the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific in Saanich, British Columbia. She said the seed had come from France....