Plant-based proteins from Canadian Heritage Beans
Edible legumes such as beans and peas are a reliable source of high quality protein. Food self-sufficiency and sustainablility are vital during this time of highly varying climate and weather extremes. Beans can be an important contribution to climate resilient diets and are easily grown across Canada.
Heritage Bean Varieties
Bean diversity, like that of potatoes, is great and much of it is maintained by backyard gardeners and small-scale growers in Canada and traditional farmers around the world.
Explore the amazing varieties of beans grown in Canada. We regularly add descriptions of our favourite varieties here, with tips on how to grow and use them.
Thibodeau de Comté Beauce: an extra early dry bean from Quebec
The short growing season in Canada demands rapidly maturing dry beans. Tina Davies of Emmerdale Eden Farm identified an early dry heritage bean from Quebec called Thibodeau de Comté Beauce
Top Ten Heritage Bush Beans for Southern Saskatchewan
Susan Griffin and Richard Hebda Canada’s prairie provinces are renowned as a world breadbasket, supplying wheat and other cereals as well as oil seeds. Surprisingly, they are a major global source of pulses such as lentils. Growing beans, however, can be challenging...
Favourite Dry & Dual-purpose Heritage Beans from Emmerdale Eden Farm, Prince Edward Island.
Tina Davies of Emmerdale Eden Farm nominates her top ten beans for PEI.
Polish Eagle Bean: Symbol of Freedom
Beans are political. I discovered this several years ago when visiting my family village in the foothills of the Tatra mountains of southern Poland. One of my numerous cousins was visiting the family house and passed on a packet of beans to his brother with great...
Good Mother Stallard: Beautiful and Bountiful
Pictures and words on websites are great for attracting attention and providing a bit of guidance to the choice of varieties. Perusing the well-known and highly reliable Rancho Gordo’s website (https://www.ranchogordo.com/collections/heirloom-beans ) from...
Annie Jackson Pole Bean: astounding yields
Richard J. Hebda and Tina Davies of Emmerdale Eden Farm There are so many bean varieties available from around the world, how does one choose what to grow? One criterion has to be the dry seed yield of the variety. Emmerdale Eden Farm of Summerside, Prince...
Marvellous Mayocoba: Many names, Many uses
Community markets are a great place to obtain interesting varieties of beans. My sister, Lucy Hebda, on a visit to Sayulita in Nayarit western Mexico, picked up a few seeds of a pretty yellowish bean called ‘Frijol de Peru’ and brought it for me to grow. According to...
Yellow Eye: Attractive but Diverse
Sometimes the common name of a plant variety covers too much territory! The colloquial name of this common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) describes its key characteristic, a yellowish eye or variation thereof around the scar. This feature results in an attractive seed but...
Early Pinkies: Pretty and Productive
Richard Hebda and Royann Petrell (Steller Raven Ecological Farm) Bean seeds come in many colours and patterns. Many of us have jars and bags of beans stowed away for years in a dark corner, not so much for their food value but for their natural artistic merit. The...
Beka: Golden Brown Bean
Richard Hebda Our Heritage Bean Project searches for early varieties widely adapted to northern climates especially in Canada. The variety Beka with its beautiful golden-brown seeds appeared as a likely candidate on several seed websites. One colourful source “A Bean...