The Great Bean Adventure Saving Seeds for Baker Creek

Reader Contribution by Ben Cohen
Published on September 17, 2014
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Of all the exciting things that happened this year at our Small House, the most exciting for me was joining Baker Creek Seed Co.’s “Gardens Across America” project. Baker Creek put the project together in an effort to connect the many heirloom vegetable growers and seed savers across the nation and create an open network of communication and idea sharing. It has also allowed us the opportunity to become a seed grow-out location for their company, which is an amazing honor to say the least!

When I first received the letter from Baker Creek’s Joseph Simcox, I was pretty much floored! The “Indiana Jones” of seeds himself had sent me a handwritten letter welcoming me to the world of seed saving and with the letter came six small ziploc bags. Each one with the name and original location of the seed hand written across the plastic. It was so surreal it was almost like a dream.

Letter from Joseph Simcox

Luckily for me he had sent six different varieties of beans to grow. There’s nothing much easier to grow than beans! So, unless something terrible were to happen, there was basically no way I could mess this up, and just as easy as growing the plants is harvesting its seeds. Just leave them hanging on the plants until the leaves have yellowed and the bean pods have dried and turned brittle. Then all you need to do is break them open and collect your precious seeds. The process is the same for dry beans that you plan to store for the kitchen.

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