Bonnie, you sound just like me :) I also love growing unique vegetables for the kids (including me) to enjoy. I was interested primarily in winter sowing veggies, and then ended up getting interested in flowers as well. I grew purple pod bush beans and purple carrots last year! You'll have to let me know how the purple pole beans do, and whether they stay purple or turn green when cooked like mine did. The bush beans didn't yield as well as I would have liked. I am also anxious to see my yellow, purple, and white tomatoes begin to to turn colors. I've had only one red and a couple tiger toms ripen so far. I had a couple yellow pear toms starting to ripen, but my dogs got to them first. I cooked up the Chinese Red Noodle beans in a stir fry last night with some zucchini. I didn't have many beans, but enough to have a taste. I tasted a bite raw, and they were kind of bitter. Stir fried, they were firm textured and mild, kind of a cross between asparagus and green beans. Cooked, the color seemed to darken to to purple/black. My kids ate them, and seemed to like them. Please post pictures of your vegetables as they begin to mature. I love seeing what other people are doing, and getting some new ideas.

Hi, Tdel! Years ago someone on another site linked her Google beta search which searches seed sites, and I saved it on my computer. I don't know how she set up the search; it doesn't search every seed site, and not those which post in .pdf format. I've set the search (linked at the end of my post) for "red noodle" and "bean". If you click on it, you'll get a rather daunting 3,000+ results (which Google then thins to 63 -- but you can see them all if you click on the link on the last page). Of the seed-sellers in that list of 63: Baker Creek (www.rareseeds.com) is a great US vendor, and will ship internationally. Johnny's Selected Seeds sells to gardeners and also commercial growers. They seem worried about the Canadian phytosanitary laws (I'm not clear on whether that applies to seeds), so you might not want to order from them. Or maybe ask Canadian GWebbers if anyone has ordered from Johnny's. Sand Hill Preservation is a great, inexpensive vendor; I happened to read yesterday that they sell to Canada if payment is made in US dollars. Pinetree Garden is a good company (cheap prices but lower seed counts). They have detailed info on international purchases. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange will sell to Canada, but cautions that seeds don't always arrive. Fedco is wonderful and cheap, but doesn't say anything about shipping outside the US. Kitazawa will not ship outside the U.S. Gourmet Seeds, Nichols Garden, and Rohrer I know nothing about; Jung is okay (I didn't check any of these to see whether they ship to Canada). Most folks caution to avoid Reimer, Tradewinds, and Amishland for various reasons. Local Harvest is not a seed vendor. Good luck! Google beta search for "red noodle" bean seeds

Have you checked the grocery store? Around here they sell both dark and light in the bagged dried bean section. Just buy a bag and plant them. Works fine. Otherwise I'd recommend Vermont Bean & Seed Company Here is a link that might be useful: Vermont Bean & Seed

I'm growing unnamed long beans right now and they have dull yellowish green flowers.. I'm also growing black eyed peas which are cowpeas and are the same species of plant as long beans. The leaves and flowers are identical but the black eyed peas are a bush variety... So it would be difficult to know the variety of the first plant amongst long beans. If you dry some seed from that plant, you might get a clue on what's goin on, OR you may not. I'm a little confused with mine because my seeds are black if left to completely dry in the pod but if you pull the seeds from the dried pod early, the seeds turn out a brick red. I don't know what process is going on there. I've never grown the red variety before so I can't coment on the flower. Seed can and do get mixed up, weather it be physically or genetically. I bought some moon shadow hyacinth beans a couple of years ago and had some purple leaved variety beans mixed in. As a kid, I remember planting a white lima bean and the beans the plant produced looked like Christmas limas... So mixups can happen...