I sent you an email ; ) I have doyce chambers and I also have Tobacco Worm if you are interested in a small packet of those (5-7 seeds).

I have an heirloom wax pole bean called Barksdale. We got it from my wife's grandparents in 1983, who got it from a great aunt years before. They all lived in and around Salem, Illinois. Someone in Seed Savers once sent me a photo copy of an article (I think it was Beans of New York) on the Andalusia Wax Pole Bean, which sounded a lot like this bean. However the seed of Barksdale is longer than wide and Andalusia was supposedly almost as wide as long. Barksdale is an excellent late pole bean, but doesn't germinate well in the heat. Also, during the hot dry time of the summer its pollen appears to die without setting beans. But when cooler nights come and it gets going and it produces LOTS of tender, flat, stringless snaps. A couple of vines of this bean supplies all our familyÂs demand for snaps, just late in the season. Barksdale has white seed. Large flat pods 7 inches long and slightly over ½ inch wide. Barksdale is available through the Seed Savers Exchange. I, of course, have seed and would be willing to send you a sample.

Presently, I have more vareties of seed than I have space to grow out, but I may be able to contribute some to your collection, depending on what you are seeking. I'll E-mail a list when I can (I won't offer it publicly because I don't have enough seed for that), or you can E-mail your wish list. BTW, I was born in WNY and spent most of my life there. Jim

George, That's basically what I needed, a rough idea about weight, productiveness, and longevity. Looking at the math is making me wish I was able to return to my old job. I already knew that selling the pole beans even for twice what one would sell tomatos was going to be labor intensive. I've got time to think this over, but like I said, I knew this wasn't going to be a very lucrative money making operation. I've eaten pole beans before and agree with what you say about quality. There's something else that most folks don't know about green beans, specifically the canned ones. We know that large food growing companies must grow bush beans so the harvesting machines can swoop them up. There was a woman who went to a church I used to go to that had worked in a canning factory in California. She told me that when the harvesting machines cut and picked up the bean bushes, they also picked up anything that happened to be attached. From there in the canning plant, beans would be sorted and "picked over". After that, the beans were placed in a solution to dissolve anything that adhered to them, some of which was described as being bits and pieces of some pretty disgusting stuff. Then the beans were apparently rinsed and canned. I don't know for sure if all this is true, but to this day, the way she described the process, I haven't been able to bring myself to eat another can of green beans. Since then I've sampled green beans in the produce section of stores and found they taste like cardboard. And "freshness"? Forget it! Well, whether I sell the pole beans or not, I've planted a LOT of them, and will hopefully have enough for fresh eating and want to can enough to last through this next winter and the following one since I don't know what my health is going to do. Thanks for the info George. This was very helpful. One way or another, we'll have food for the table and some good healthy and TASTY fresh food ahead of us this summer, plus some to put by "Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise". Barbara