I'd like to continue on with my Q & A blog posts. I enjoy posting these. I enjoy getting to know the people that I am interviewing and I hope you guys enjoy them, as well.
Today, I'd like to talk to Rita Milburn about heirloom beans. Rita and I became Facebook friends because she was looking for Egyptian Walking Onions bulbils and I had some that I could trade. We traded. She loves the onions, they are growing really well for her. I'm still in awe over everything that she sent me. What I'm most looking forward to is planting out the bean variety that she developed called Brown-Eye Bobby. There will be more on that bean later on.
Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: I like anything different or unusual and odd, but I have more beans in my collection than anything. I remember my dad always trying different things . I can remember him raising garden huckleberry and peanuts! I've raised garden huckleberry and will be raising peanuts this year.
Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom bean varieties?
A: When I went to my first seed swap in Berea at Bill Best farm. I was hooked. Then I found some cornfield beans that was in my grandmother's old freezer when we purchased her house. Raised them and was amazed. They were saved 1980. Went the seed swap with a few of these, traded them and came home with several seeds and that's when it began.
Q: Do you have a personal favorite bean variety?
A: That's a hard question to answer! I love them all! The fact that you put that seed into the ground and it becomes a beautiful and edible plant. But I do raise Bill Best NT 1/2 runner every year. No matter what stage you pick these beans they are always (non-tough) tender. You can pick young for green beans and pick them fuller for shelly beans and still tender. Same bean, different taste. They bare good too! The more you pick the more they bloom.
Q: On average, how many types of beans do you grow in a year and how big is your garden?
A: Last year in 2021, I raised 98 different kinds of beans, but honestly that was too many! Keeping my records and diagram of my garden was a challenge. I managed it but it took a lot of work keeping it straight. I usually planted different color seed beans so when they rambled I could tell which on was which. On the average I have grew 25 kinds. I have 700 square feet and vertical is the way to go pole beans grow up!
Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: My mom and dad and my dad's parents. They raised a big garden. My dad would do the planting and together my parents would keep the garden clean. Mom would pick and can all summer. I remember my grandmother's garden and how she would sit and very carefully gather her carrots. She would pick the biggest out to thin, but they were still little! But by the end of season she would have some nice carrots! I tend my garden in the same spot she did!
Q: How many varieties of heirloom beans do you have in your personal seed collection?
A: The last time I counted it was 400 bean seeds give or take. I document all my seeds, where they come from, type and any history that is past down with them. I also mark the ones I've raised and the year , most of the time. I have tomato, peppers, flowers, herbs and a lot of other seeds.
Q: Do you sell seeds and, if so, how do people get in touch with you?
A: I only sell my seeds at seed swaps, but I'd rather trade for something I don't have. In 2020 with covid, seeds were getting hard to find and I had a lot of my Facebook friends wanting a few seeds. I would send package seeds to Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Hawaii. Sometimes they would send me seeds and sometimes I would just receive a big thank you. I'm ok with that because I like to "Sow Seeds of Kindness".
*I'd like to add that your seeds came to Washington state, too. My onions made their way to you in Florida. My garden is truly bi-coastal this year!
Q: What is the rarest bean seed in your collection right now?
A: I have a bean that I have developed that has taken me about 5 years to get it stable? It's was a cross of Hidatsa shield and another unknown bean. But it's a stringless bush bean with long full pods with a kidney shape bean. When it first crossed, the next year, Bill Best suggested I raise the beans separate from any other bean and raise it a couple of years and if it stayed the same as what I planted, I could name the bean. I named it Brown Eye Bobby in memory of my dad!
So, back to the Brown-Eye Bobby. Rita has sent me some seeds of this variety to grow and I'm super excited about it.
It's people, just like Rita, that have made the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups as successful as they are. I want to extend a huge thanks to her for taking the time to indulge me and my questions.
Happy Planting!
