We have our beans!

 Aren't they beautiful?

These Orca beans were donated by Dr. Carol Miles,
a horticultural researcher at the WSU facility in Mt. Vernon, WA

Our donated beans date from a WSU research project in 2018.  The goal of the project was to determine if "soup beans" (as opposed to "green beans") would be a viable niche market crop for Western Washington farmers.  

The short answer is "yes."

The longer answer is HERE.

This project trialed several varieties of soup bean
to determine which (if any) were a good match
for Western Washington growing conditions.

Although the research was focused on dry beans, the researchers got curious about which (if any) varieties also made good food at the "green" stage.  

The clear winner was Orca.

PLEASE NOTE:  Several seed companies call all their black and white beans Ying/Yang, Calypso, and Orca interchangeably. 

However, those beans are not necessarily the same thing.  Dr. Miles told me that she communicated to the mis-labelling companies and they essentially did not care.  So that's a thing I know now.

Looking at you Rancho Gordo , Northern Feed & Bean ,
Adaptive Seeds , and many others. 
Not all black and white beans are the same!

ANYHOW, Dr. Miles just happened to have a pound-bag of Orca beans left over from the project, so we know we have REAL Orca beans!

But...beans from 2018?  Would they still grow?

A research assistant ran a germination test by soaking a paper towel in water, folding ten beans inside it, and putting the towel + beans in a warm place for a week or so to see what happened.

All The Beans Sprouted!

I love science.

It's not (quite) time to plant our beans, but it IS time for me to get your beans to you.  Be watching your mailboxes for seed deliveries soon!