Mennonite Bean

Maturity: 100 days Climbing shelling bean. This variety comes from the Abenaki First Nations. It is part of Slow Food's Ark of Taste. The beans, once dry, are a flamboyant red which makes them resemble cranberries. White hilum. Rich Flavour. Rare variety, rediscovered by the bean collector John Withee, who obtained it from M. Taylor of Steep Falls, Maine after 11 years of research. He had read the description in an encyclopedia dating back from the 1700s. In 1981, John Withee donated his collection of 1,186 beans to the Seed Savers Exchange organization (U.S.). This variety is found in a number of catalogues from the East of New England in the 1850s, including in one from Montreal dated from 1899. It mentioned that this variety was very popular. Package: 20 seeds

Dwarf bean variety that produces a seed halfway between pea and fava bean. According to the Potager d'Antan : « It was still being cultivated in 1999 by a 80 year old man from Lotbinière, Monsieur Laliberté, who confirmed us the plant was unique in Canada. (...) Given by Laliberté's son to Antoine D'Avignon, Seeds of Diversity guardian angel. Antoine passed away in 2003. His sister, Mme. Gisèle D'Avignon, gave us the seeds. » Delicious in pea soup, a traditional meal in the province of Quebec in the past century. This variety is very rare and is considered endangered.   Package: 25 seeds

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Green bush bean, with small round and sweet pods. A delight! This variety was found on a trading table at a Seedy Saturday event in Frelishburg, QC, in 2013. The name seems ancient, and it is not listed on any of the list of seed saving organizations in either Canada nor the U.S. Limited quantities. VERY RARE. If someone has any additional informations on its origin, please share it with us. It it one of our favourites, and we are dying to get to know it better! Addendum: In November 2016, we found a mention of a Dutch Princess bean in the "New-Zeland Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science /Experimental Agriculture" of March 1978. The origin of the bean is, unsurprisingly, Dutch. It seems it was named by the seed saver William Damn Seeds, who sells an improved version of a Dutch Princess bean. We also found a Dutch Princess bean mention in a research center from... Tanzania, in Arusha, (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)) in 1972. To be continued...

Old dwarf cultivar from Beauce, Quebec. Its green pods are covered with purple stripes. It can be eaten as green or dry beans. According to many, they're the best choice to make baked beans (fèves au lard). However, Boucher Family bean fans disagree. The solution? Mix 'em both! Beauce territory was originally occupied by the Iroquoian Nation of the Saint-Lawrence. It is therefore a possibility that this bean comes from a variety that they were growing. With the arrival of the first Colonizers many trades happened, among which beans were handed to the newcomers. With this gift, they then continued selection over many years to create different varieties. This variety, Thibodeau du comté Beauce, was found by Mr Marc Warsha. He was given the seeds by Mr Martin Roy from St-Zacharie, in Beauce. The cultivation of this bean had been carried for 4 generations, starting with the great-great-grandmother of Martin Roy, as far as we can trace back. The name, Thibodeau du comté Beauce, was first listed in the Seed of Diversity catalogue in 2003. Package: 30 seeds

Also known as the "Montreal Market Muskmelon" or "Montreal Nutmeg Melon". This mythical green flesh melon with a nutmeg flavor has almost disappeared.

 

The earliest records come from the Jesuits, who cultivated this variety in the Montreal Plain in 1684. According to the Potager d'Antan : "this melon went through many selections during the 17th Century, before being introduced under the name "Montreal Melon", in 1870. In the 1880s, it was listed as one of the best seller in New England by American seed company Burpee".

 

Very popular at the beginning of the 1900s and until the 1950s, it was largely commercialized and grown by three families : the Aubin, the Décarie and the Gorman. But lack of labour force, rises in wages and the spreading of the city triggered its decline. As highways paved the island, it slowly faded from our collective memory. When farms vanished from Montreal, it risked being obliterated. Until a journalist found its trace in a seed bank, in the United States.

 

This melon is a living proof of our seed and food diversity decline. Save your seeds and share them.

 

Heirloom variety. Listed on Slow Food Canada's Ark of Taste.

 

Pkt : 12 seeds.