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.

Calypso: a pretty and early dry bean

Calypso: a pretty and early dry bean

There are many attractive-looking dry beans to grow such as the beautiful red- or maroon-spotted  “Borlotti” or Cranberry types such as La Pinta and the gold hued red marked Tiger’s Eye (see articles on our site). I am particularly attracted to seeds that have black...

Drew’s Dandy: An extraordinary northern bean

Drew’s Dandy: An extraordinary northern bean

Our Crop Climate project aims to investigate beans that might thrive in Canada’s largely northern climate with its short growing season. We have found one that fits the bill! Drew’s Dandy hails from the Carrot River area of east central Saskatchewan. Carrot River is...

Aura:  An extra early Polish bush bean

Aura: An extra early Polish bush bean

Our crop climate project aims to preserve and test a diversity of varieties especially for northern climates with short growing seasons. My rather eclectic approach to the bean component of our project was to trial whatever we could find. A few years ago, I purchased...

Kashmir Bean: Mountain Bounty

Kashmir Bean: Mountain Bounty

Kashmir conjures up visions of monstrous mountains covered in snow at the top of the world, and certainly does not call up a picture of beans. Yet according to one source Kashmir heritage beans are the most widely used variety in India! Who could resist trying this...

Xico – Black Bean Bounty

Xico – Black Bean Bounty

Part of a series on growing heritage bean varieties for local food sustainability. Figure 1. At centre, a row of closely planted Xico bushes with pink flower (bottom of photo), Edamame (soy beans) to the left and various pole beans to the right. Dense planting...

Spanish Pinta: one early bean

Spanish Pinta: one early bean

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...

Giant Heritage Bean from Vancouver Island

Giant Heritage Bean from Vancouver Island

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”...

Tiger’s Eye

Tiger’s Eye

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...