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...

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...

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...

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”...

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...

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....