Yes, my opinion is that it will be fine. I bought a bunch of it a couple of years back because I found it for $1 on clearance. I stored it in the freezer and the roots last year had plenty of nodules, so I'm sure it worked. I figured it would, because I buy bread yeast in 2 lb bulk packs (much cheaper this way), and then divide into smaller packages and freeze, and it seems to last at least 2 to 3 years in my freezer this way with good "rise" to the bread. So, I doubt that an overnight freeze or two will hurt it.

here is my best response. Limas or butterbeans and butter peas are the same familiy and will cross with each other. Most folks call the large seeded types limas and the smaller ones butter beans but they are all butter beans to me and are in the rest of the world called limas. the butter peas are rounded versions of the small seeded limas and are commonly called butter peas. Limas and field peas(black eye crowder cream etc) perform best in the heat and will produce seed in the heat and humidity of the south. Common beans grow well in the south but are an early summer crop and planted as soon as the ground has warmed in early spring. Common beans (dry types or green bean types) will not produce seed if tempertures are too high having about the same sensitivity to temperature as tomatoes have. I plant common beans early spring harvest early summer. I plant field peas and limas early summer harvest late summer and fall. I have moderate success with late summer planting of common beans with fall harvest. Hope this helps Rodger

Well, it took a little longer than usual, but my plans finally came together. Like several others here, I am a collector & preservationist, so many of these varieties are not widely known: Beans: ___"Atlas" - from GW swap; bush, medium-large seeds w/coloration very similar to "Cranberry". Dropped by the trade, so I hope to keep it in circulation. ___"Bosnian Pole" - from GW swap w/Remy, from... guess where? ;-) Only had 5 seeds to start with, and only one plant survived squirrel attack last year. Fortunately, that one plant produced lots of seed, so I hope to actually eat some this year, and have seed to swap. Very unusual seed, changes color as it ages... goes from black & buff, to black, buff, and pure white. ___"Brita's Foot Long" - white seeded pole variety, very good quality as a dry bean. Originally from Salt Spring Seeds (Canada), which no longer ships to U.S. Sent a lot of seed out for this, so need to replenish my stock. ___"Chester" - pole, from an SSE swap. Large flat black & white seeds, similar to small limas. Allegedly a good shell bean. ___"Chiclet" - pole, from GW swap with Lynnt earlier in this thread. Medium-large tan seeds that are squarish & white as shellies, hence the name. Originally from Sicily, probably a Romano-type snap. ___"Cornfield, Striped" - pole, from an SSE swap. Small, shiny, very fat red & tan seeds, uncertain as to usage. ___"Emerite" - high-quality pole snap, from Vermont Bean. My other main-crop snap, "Fortex", gets a year off for good behavior. ;-) ___"Jimenez" - pole snap, from GW swap, originally from Thompson & Morgan. 3 of 5 seeds germinated last year, and only one survived rabbit attack (they were really bad last year). Heard good reviews, hope to taste a few this year, and increase my seed enough to share with others. ___"Ma Williams" - pole, from SSE. Outstanding shelly. Like "Brita's", have shared a lot of seed for this, and need to replenish my stock. Main crop shelly. ___"Monterosa" - bush, from USDA. Large black & white seeds, trial as a shelly. ___"Porcelain" (a.k.a. "Snowcap") - pole, from SSE swap. Beautiful large seed, red stripes over buff, with a white "cap" on one end. Trial for use as a shelly. ___"Tetovac" - pole, GW swap, from Serbia. Very large flat white seed, probably Romano-type snap, trial for shelly. ___"Zlatac" - pole wax, from SSE swap. Bronze seed. Cowpeas & yardlongs: ___"Chinese Red Noodle" - yardlong, purple podded, originally from Baker Creek. ___"Galante" - yardlong, green pods, from Philippines. ___"Green Dixie" * ___"MN 13" * ___"Speckled Purple hull" * ___"Stickless Wonder" - bush yardlong, trial for comparison w/ "Yancheng Bush". ___"Thailand Pole" * (Those marked (*) were described earlier in this thread.) Limas: ___"Blue & White Fence" - a.k.a. Old Time Fence, pole type, from SSE, small black & white seeds. ___"King of the Garden" - pole, from Vermont Bean. Large-seeded, my main crop butterbean. Peas: ___"Dunn" - soup ___"Green Arrow" - shell pea ___"Gruno Rosyn" - soup ___"Purple Podded Parsley" - purple podded shell pea, with tiny leaflets in place of tendrils. After crop failures two years in a row due to bad weather, I was able to increase my stock a little last year, and hope to grow enough seed this year to share with others. ___"Plovdivski Podobren" - from Gatersleben, uncertain as to usage. ___"Sandy" - snow pea ___"Sugar Lace II" - snap pea. There's an exception to every rule, and this is the only PVP variety that I grow. Runner beans: ___"Tucomares Chocolate" - pole, from SSE swap, brown-seeded, red & white flowers. This will be my 3rd year of roguing out a white-flowered cross present in the original seed, hopefully this year the seed will be all brown. ___"Sunset Runner" - pole, pink flowers. Soybeans - still TBD, about 20 varieties. Most are the final remnants from the collection of the late Robert Lobitz. Misc: ___Adzuki, "Buff" - good soup bean ___Chickpea, "Brown Popping" ___Garbanzo, "PI 359241" ___Winged bean With our cooler than normal late May/early June, I started many of these in pots, where I would have otherwise direct seeded. Just waiting for a warm, dry day to put them out. Dean, that might work for you; it would give you time to dig up your new lawn. ;-)

See phylis's link above for some wonderful stuff. Through houzz/gardenweb and another site, I have been SO blown out of the water by tormato's swaps! The main swap is Mostly Mystery 'Mater Mailing (MMMM), with some pepper seeds, misc. veggies, flowers, etc. In one year, I got so very many tomato seed varieties that I almost groan about participating again. But...if he's going to include "everything but the kitchen sink", there are still some pepper and various bean and pea varieties I would enjoy trying. You can send in your spare commercial seed if it's not too old, as well as seed you may have saved, with reasonable effort to avoid much crossing. Also, there are people with a super-abundance of seed who might be able to sponsor you, in one or all categories, if you are very seed-challenged. If nothing else, you can purchase a seed variety or 2 (preferably not very common, if you can find it) and send some of that in to the swap. Recently, not as many peas came in to the swap as people wanted to get back - hint, hint... One of the "mysterious" parts of Gary's swaps is the rules (or lack thereof). In the link noted above by phylis, Post #170 might get you started. However, reading through the entire roughly 300 posts might get you a few laughs...your mileage may vary. In previous years, the legume swap was separate, but I'm not sure it will be this time; part of the mystery. Gary's online access will likely be curtailed until October 3 or so; if you have a question for him, Patience is a Virtue. Since I do have a vested self-interest, I will especially invite people to participate if they have any of the following seeds to share. Pepper -Cayenne, Sweet -Corbaci aka Sari Tatli Sivri -Chimayo -Kaleidoskop -Melrose -Orosko aka Orozco -Ot Chi Thien -Santa Fee Grande aka Caribe aka Guero Bean, Common -Carr Virginia -Florence -Fowler -Lazy Wife (roundish, not oblong, seeds) -Red Eye Greasy -Robert's Royalty -Seay Cut-short -Sequoia -Tennessee Green Pod -Waterloo County Mennonite aka Mennonite Purple Stripe -Zuni Shalako/Four Corners Gold Pea -Green Beauty -Minnesota Sweet (not a "sweetpea") -Sugar Magnolia There may well be 100+ participants in this swap, and some of them are quite generous. Whether you have much to contribute or not, you might be able to jump in and participate. The deadline to have seeds arrive at his end is November 10th (or November 1st if you are a procrastinator). Thank you, houzz/gardenweb, for introducing me to tormato and his swaps.