Just sent you an email. :)

George I am very sorry to hear about this. I know that this is a valuable family heirloom. I grew them in the summer of 2009. At that time I did not keep as complete records as I do now but I don't think I started them in pots. That gave them a late start. An early hard frost on October 11 gave them an early finish. The result was that none of the pods softened and the seeds were small and immature. I did save back a dozen of your original 2008 seeds though. Thirteen actually. So, I can mail them all to you. Or I can mail most them but keep back a couple to attempt a grow out. I have your mailing address from the 2012 yearbook. I think you sent some to Annette but she appears to be seriously ill and does not answer my emails. You sent some to NY VA B and also VA BA R and both of them offered them this year in the SSE Yearbook. Dick

In the legume family, in general dried beans are higher in protein than dried peas. I think soybeans are the highest,followed by lentils, followed by dried beans in general (black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, etc.) and then by dried peas. In the pea category, dried southern peas (blackeyes, pinkeye purplehulls, zipper peas, crowder peas, etc.) are a little higher in protein than dried green peas (English peas, etc.). It goes without saying that any bean or pea harvested and eaten as a snap bean or as a edible podded pea or as a shelly green bean or pea has less protein than those grown to maturity and harvested dry because at the green stage they have not yet fully developed the proteins that will develop before you harvest them as dried peas/beans. I've grown most of the bean varieties offered by SESE but I grow them as snap beans or as shelly beans(particularly lima beans) at the green stage but not as dried beans, and they produce just fine in spring and fall, but most flower and set beans poorly in mid-summer because the heat impedes their pollination. Pretty much any bean variety I ever have grown, excluding runner beans which also have trouble in high heat, will produce well with only minimal irrigation as long as the temperatures don't go too far above about 90 degrees. At 90 degrees, blossom drop often becomes a problem. I don't grow beans or peas to the dried bean or pea stage because both are so inexpensive to buy in bulk at the grocery store that it does not make any logical sense to me to devote a lot of garden space to growing them and then devote a lot of time to shelling them, only to have a relatively small harvest as a result. When you grow beans to the dry stage, you are discarding the dry pods and keeping the dry beans/peas and it is amazing how a big bucket of bean or pea pods gives you relatively few peas/beans (by weight or volume) once shelled compared to all the empty, dried pods you throw on the compost pile. I don't like spending all that time growing and harvesting them only to keep 5% of the plant to eat while composting the rest, but that's just me. I simply like the maximum production from the soil we've spent years improving, and raising beans or peas to the dry stage gives us a smaller harvest overall than harvesting them and eating them as snap peas or snap beans, although the same harvest if eating them as green shellies. Drought tolerance is in the eyes of the beholder to a certain extent because there are many kinds of drought. Beans or peas that grow and produce well in moderate or severe drought might not grow and produce nearly as well once your area advances to extreme or exceptional drought. The beans that have produced best for me in periods of extreme or exceptional drought are Rattlesnake, Worchester Indian Red Lima and Violet's Multicolored Butter Beans. All southern peas produce very well in heat and drought. Dawn

from: www.hillbillyhousewife.com Boston Baked Beans * 2 pounds white beans (northern or navy beans) * 2 teaspoons salt * 2 teaspoons dry mustard * 1/2 cup molasses * 1/2 cup brown sugar * 1 onion, peeled and chopped * 4 to 6 oz of raw bacon, chopped Soak the beans overnight in plenty of tap water. Or, you can bring them to a boil on the stove and then turn them off, cover them and let them sit for an hour or two. The point of this is to reconstitute them some, making them easier to cook. After the initial preparation boil your beans on the back of the stove for about half an hour. They won't be perfectly soft, but they will be almost soft. Drain off the cooking water. In a very large casserole (4-quart) combine the semi-cooked beans, salt, dry mustard, molasses, sugar and chopped bacon. Add enough hot water to barely come to the top of the beans. Put a lid on the casserole, or tin foil. Bake the beans at 300° for about 5 to 7 hours. They will be tender, fragrant and delicious. My kids love this stuff. The cooked beans may be frozen in two cup portions to substitute for canned baked beans or canned pork'n'beans in any recipe. They make a good main dish, or a side dish for a large crowd. This recipe serves about 16. I make such a large amount so I can have plenty of leftovers to freeze. Another way to cook this, good in the summertime, is to use a crock pot. Boil the soaked beans for half an hour, as directed above. Then, instead of combining everything in a casserole, combine them in the crock pot instead. Put the lid on the Crock Pot after you've mixed everything up in it, and cook it on High for about 3 or 4 hours, or on low for 6 or 8 hours. You can put a folded dish towel on top of the lid if your crock pot doesn't get quite hot enough to cook beans normally. The dish towel helps maintain a temperature hot enough to just barely simmer the beans. Serve with Corn Casserole, Mixed Greens and Oatmeal Muffins or Whole Wheat Bread.