Garden Chat with Earl Bassett

 Rounding out my garden chats, I'll introduce Earl Bassett. I think Earl has the biggest number of tomato varieties in his personal seed collection. We'll get to that number a bit later.

I'm going to take a bit of a break with the chats until after I get everything planted out in my garden. In a few days, we'll be hauling in the rest of my soil and seeding those in, along with nasturtiums, etc. I'm also going to need to plant out cucurbits. Of course, we'll need to rabbit proof all this, as well.

So, back to my Q&A with Earl. Earl owns 45th Seeds. Click here to go to his website.

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: My go to and having a collection of over 5,000 varieties would be tomatoes but I garden to eat so I grow over a dozen things. I sell Egyptian Walking Onions in May and I have many herbs.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: About 20 years ago after moving to NE Michigan. I started the largest mail seed swap and started the now closed Tomatodepot. Many "old-timers" have passed on this journey, I would love to do a biography on them for you sometime. (That would be interesting! Let's do that sometime, for sure!)

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: Not really, but I have favorite pastes, favorite dark cherries, etc. On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: My parents who always had a garden and Dr. Carolyn Male who always supported me. She was a tomato author.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: 5,000 in select cases...fresh, 50 or so.

Q: What is the name of your Facebook group?
A: Seedy Friends-Tomato Inventories Buying Bartering Selling

**Side note: you can also find Earl in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous and Sam's Big Tomatoes And Veggie Group. Click here to ask to join. Sam's is an awesome group and tell Shelley hi for me!**

Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: Facebook preferred/Paypal to order.

Q: What is the rarest tomato seed in your collection?
A: Well, many: Livingstons, Canadians from 50's & 60's, Potato Leaved from 100 years back. A couple I saved and got back to farmer's who asked. Dan McMuray stuff, many crosses from friends, discoveries like Earl's Red Beefsteak and one I selected for 12 year-Earl's First Early, Cole is quite rare and a staple for me.

Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: No best but several-I really like Sam's Big Tomato and Veggie Group and Seedy Friends-Tomato Inventories Buying Bartering Selling.

(You forgot HTAA...LOL!)

What I didn't mention in this post yet is that Earl is a veteran. This is a subject that I'm pretty vehement about and I will always encourage people to support veteran-owned businesses. Earl has that in common with my husband, Bob. Our country doesn't do enough for those who signed a blank check to our government payable in the amount up to their lives. It takes a strong person to do that and each veteran has nothing but my utmost respect.

I also want to add that Earl grows around 150 varieties of tomatoes each year. Garden goals for me!

Thank you, Earl, for indulging me and my questions. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer them.

Building A Raised Bed For Beans

 I think I've mentioned that I've amassed almost 100 varieties of beans that I wanted to plant out this year. Well, I have to be realistic about things. I'm going to have to split that number in half and then I may need to pitch out a few  from those.

This is a new garden from me. Last year, we bought the exact same soil blend for my raised beds, from the exact same place. Each time, the soil blend is different, if only by a little bit. We ran across a screaming deal for mushroom compost. I bought 30 bags of it for $1 per bag. They aren't tiny bags, either. Anyhow, I planted out several raised beds with early spring stuff. We have had weird weather this year so far. I think I heard on the news that it's been a desperately needed wet spring, the 10th wettest on record. We've been in a drought here in western Washington state. Click here to read more about that.

I knew that, this year, I wasn't even about to think about setting out my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant or cucurbits until after the first week of June unless we start getting some warmer, dryer temperatures around these parts. I started my nightshades on March 1st. I seeded in my cucurbits less than a week ago. I planted out kale, lettuce, radishes and bok choy the first week of March. It's starting to bolt.

Yes, the weather has been weird this year, for sure.

So, with all that, I'll be direct seeding beans in the first week of June and I needed a raised bed for them. I plan on using a T-post and shrog trellis system for them. We were asked if we wanted some old lumber that someone we know wasn't going to be using. We said sure! With the cost of lumber, we're more than happy to take whatever anyone wants to give us! There was enough for Bob to build me out a 3x25-foot raised bed. It will be around 7.5 inches deep and it will be plenty of room to grow out pole beans. Now, I am going to be growing out 4 bean varieties for Russell Crow this year. Those will not be down there in the bed. Those are going to be isolated and I'll use grow bags for those.

Down there where that tall grass is, in front of the alder, that's where the bean bed is to be put in. I had wanted a 50 foot one, but it wouldn't fit into the area.

First, Bob laid landscaping fabric. The fabric, when unfolded is 6 feet. This is perfect because the bed is 3 feet wide, so this fabric can be doubled up. I, eventually,want that whole area down there to be wood chips. I don't want any grass.

We realize that this lumber will rot off in a few years. It's not in the greatest shape now. It's raw lumber. It's not treated. We're okay with it rotting away because once that area is covered in wood chips, it's done it's job.

These boards aren't going to win any beauty contests, for sure, but they will work. I'm all about making free stuff work.

Bob is hard at work. He can mark this off of his honey-do list.

I can't wait to get this planted out and growing! I have to go through my beans and decide which will be planted and which won't.

Egyptian Walking Onions are starting to reproduce.

I appreciate him doing this for me.

Sasha is supervising. She's good at that job.

He's just finishing up.

Tacking down the landscape fabric. The landscape fabric was given to us along with the lumber.

And...
It's built! It's ready to go. I'm guessing that it will take around a yard and a half or so to fill it.

Heirloom Tomato Chat With Kim Lund

 I got a chance to chat with Kim Lund regarding her passion for heirloom tomatoes. This woman is a steward, not only of tomatoes, but heirloom bean varieties. I know I'll be buying seeds from her for my 2023 garden season, for sure!

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: I specialize in tomatoes. They are my true passion.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: I once, years ago, bought a Heirloom tomato variety called Belgium Giant and I fell in love with it and started researching heirloom varieties and got hooked.

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: I love all tomatoes, I have several favorites that will always have a space in my garden, Giant Belgium is one. Cour Antico de Acqui Terme is a great tomato, large and in charge, great for all things tomato, Monkey Ass, Girls Girls Weird Thing.

Q: On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?
A: I try to get about 120 or so. I sell to the local restaurant so I need a lot of varieties.


Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: My father was my mentor, we gardened together for many years. He handed his passion down to me. Then when I met Martin Longseth and he became my mentor and teacher. The man was full of knowledge. He taught me a lot about not only tomatoes but different things to do with gardening. He was a great friend who is greatly missed.


Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: I currently have well over 4000 varieties, over 100 categorized in Seedsavers. (seedsavers.org)


Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: They can contact me on Facebook or at Seed Savers Exchange online.


Q: Are you planning on having a website in the future?
A: I have been looking into it, but with running the farm and greenhouse sales and the garden I just don't really know when I will find the time, but it is in the future. I have many rare varieties. I am collecting rare to the United States varieties as we speak. I have several family heirlooms from many other Countries that are not available here in the U.S. The rarest I have now I would say is Campbells 33.

**Side note: Kim has many of the Campbell's varieties. These all come with a number. I ordered my Campbell's 1327 from her last year. She also has many of the different Heinz varieties in her collection. Those, like Campbell's, come with a number after the name. I find these varieties fascinating because I grow to preserve for winter use. Campbell's and Heinz are forever developing newer and tastier tomato varieties. My thoughts are that you can't go wrong with those if you are growing out to can up sauce, paste, ketchup, etc.


Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: I find them all to be great groups. I like to see what the daily subject will be on all of them. I don't usually do much on them but I do peruse them all.


I very much enjoyed my chat with Kim. She's super knowledgeable and helpful when I was placing an order with her last year and told her what I was intending to do. Her seed prices are more than reasonable and shipping was fast!
As a matter of fact, I have some Julia Child tomatoes going that are from the seeds that I bought from Kim.

Click here to visit Seed Savers Exchange.
Click here to visit Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous. You can always post and tag Kim in there.


Thank you, Kim, for indulging me. I know how busy you are so I do feel honored that you took a bit of time out to chat with me.

Heirloom Vegetable Chat With Ken Fry

 I got to visit with Ken Fry and have a chat with him regarding how he got into gardening, etc. I've ordered from Ken before and it's his fault that I'm really into growing obscure Native American varieties of heirloom beans. I had gotten a hold of one particular variety last year, quite by accident, and now it's on!

I requested this photo of Ken's supervisor. She is hard at work here. It's hard work to maintain that level of cuteness and she does her job well.

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: Heirloom tomatoes that have a story to be told. Peppers from super hot to sweet. Cool beans.

I have several of those little envelopes in my seed collection. The one I'm looking most forward to this years is Hobb's Goose Bean.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: I have always had a garden, but around 2016 is when I really started saving seeds.

*Side note: That photo of Ken's high tunnel? That's garden goals for me!

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: Not one particular one no. I love all tomatoes.

Q: On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?
A: 300 plants, 150 varieties.

*Side note: Would you please talk to my husband and tell him that planting 75 tomato plants is NOT ridiculous??

Q: What is the rarest tomato seed in your collection?
A: Probably the Inciardi Paste. That one really got me into collecting tomatoes with a back story. One day I was on Slow food, ark of taste looking at all the endangered tomatoes and I was bound and determined to find the Inciardi Paste that was listed on there. So I kept googling until I found Vickie Nowicki who is the steward for the seed. I sent her an email not really expecting a reply and not only did she reply back she agreed to send me seeds. I received 10 seeds dated 2014. Planted them and they all germinated. And it is heck ya, I am saving this tomato from being endangered. I have been growing every since.

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: Don't really have one. Although I do hold Tomato Jim in hi regards. He is the one that got be going to seed swaps and being a vendor.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: 93 varieties, although some may be out of stock until fall.

Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: On my website. Or if you have an interesting trade pm me. I am always looking for that family heirloom tomato.

Ken's website is called Forgotten Heirlooms. Click here to visit.

Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: Of course, Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous.

I'd like to thank Ken for having a chat with me. He's the newest person on the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous admin team and I'm damn lucky to have him, just as I'm damn lucky to have every single admin. 
Below is a list of all the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups. Feel free to ask to join.

Click on each group name and ask to join.
Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Bean Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Cucurbit Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Root Vegetable Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Lettuce/Greens Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Pepper Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Herb & Flower Addicts Anonymous

Heirloom Vegetable Chat With Terry Lambert

 I got a chance to chat with Terry Lambert, who is in both Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous and Heirloom Bean Addicts Anonymous, about gardening. Terry has always been super supportive of the groups.


Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: I grow a little bit of everything but my passion is tomatoes, beans, peppers, and anything unusual or not usually grown for food.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato and bean varieties?

A: I’ve been gardening for over 50 years but my passion for seed saving started after I had a stroke in 2016. I was unable to garden for a few years and lost almost all my seed. When I started back I had trouble finding the things I had always grown and when researching found out how many heirloom varieties there were and how many we had lost and I was hooked!

**Side note: I didn't know that you had a stroke and I hope you've recovered completely from it. I can say that from the way you answered the questions, I couldn't tell that ever happened to you!

Q: Do you have a personal favorite bean or tomato variety?
A: Not really. I love them all!

**Side note: Me, too, Terry! Me, too! Well, except for Blue Beauty tomatoes. I grew those last year. They were stunning to look at and tasted like nothing.  I'll add in that photo just so that there is a tomato photo in this blog post. 😉

Coincidentally, you'll know that you've reached the right tomato group on Facebook if you see this photo. This is one of those dreaded Blue Beauty tomatoes. They are stunning to look at but they have no flavor.

Q: On average, how many types of beans and tomatoes do you grow in a year and how big is your garden? A: Up until this year my garden has been from a 1/4 acre up to a 1/2 acre plus assorted raised beds and containers here and there. This year I’ve moved to a new place and am still working on getting the new garden space going. I’m hoping eventually here to have about a half acre in cultivation. An average year I’ll plant around 20 bean varieties and at least 100 tomato varieties. I haven’t started my beans yet this year but currently have 112 varieties of tomatoes I’ll be setting out in the next few weeks.

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: In gardening in general is definitely my grandpa. Most everything I know I learned following him and that old mule. In tomatoes it’s Kim Lund. I met her online through my friend Martin Longseth and through several online groups. She’s been so helpful in guiding me to where I can find info on varieties that have me stumped and has been so generous with her time and knowledge.

**Side note: I'm hoping to have a Q&A with Kim Lund coming up soon!

Q: How many varieties of heirloom beans and tomatoes do you have in your personal seed collection?
A: I’m a relative newcomer to seed saving. I currently have a bit over 300 varieties of tomatoes and about 200 of beans.

**Side note: Holy Cow!! My husband thought I was crazy for around 100 varieties of beans and 200 varieties of tomatoes. I'm going to need to have you have a talk with him.

Q: Do you sell seeds and, if so, how do people get in touch with you?
A: I occasionally sell or trade seeds although my focus is on preservation more than sales. I can be reached through Facebook and my wife is currently working on a website which hopefully will be up and running by mid summer. Although I’m meaning for it to be mainly a educational resource, I will offer seeds for sale there too.

**Side note: Just let me know when your site is up.

Q: What is the rarest bean or tomato seed in your collection right now?
A: I couldn’t say. Most likely some of the tomatoes I’m growing out from the late Mr. Longseth’s collection. There are several of those I’ve never heard of and can find absolutely no information on. But each and every seed is precious to me regardless of rarity.

Q: What's the best bean or tomato group on Facebook?
A: The Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups! (Don’t make me chose between them because I can’t!)

Thank you, Terry, for doing this for me. I am enjoying getting to know everyone through these Q&A's. I'm learning more and more about the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous members that I had no idea of!

Heirloom Bean Chat With Rita Milburn

 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!

Heirloom Bean Chat With Russell Crow

I've thoroughly enjoyed chatting with various people that are admins of the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups. There are also a few members that I reached out to and asked if they would do a quick Q & A with me and send me some photos that they would like for me to include in the post. I knew, right away that I was going to message Russell Crow and ask him if he would agree to this. I was certainly relieved and happy that he said yes!

I've admired Russell Crow's heirloom bean growing abilities for quite some time. I think a lot of people think that heirloom tomatoes are my thing, but they aren't. I enjoy growing them, for sure, but my favorite things to grow are beans and peas.

Growing up in Forks, Washington, my dad would put in a backyard garden every year. He would always say that beans were his gig. Well, after trying to fight it and bend to my will and make it tomatoes, I finally acquiesce that I have a knack for growing beans and peas. And along came Russell's website, A Bean Collector's Window. Well, this is Russell's interview, so I'll save my journey for another time.

Mr. Crow says, "At my Deer fenced plot view from  about 150 feet in the air. The owner of the property has a drone and he took pictures in July when all the bush beans were growing well last year. He calls my garden project here "Bean Acres".

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?

A: I specialize in growing mostly heirloom beans. Pole types, bush, semi runners and Pole limas. For my own use I do grow tomatoes every season from seed I save myself and some seasons I will also grow a carrot crop. 

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom bean varieties?
A: Back in the middle 1970's I was gardening and growing bush snap beans I had about 10 different varieties of commercial snap beans and was growing about a half dozen of dry beans all purchased from commercial seed catalogs. When I read the article that Rodal Press's Organic Gardening & Farming published in January 1978 about John Withee from Lynnfield, Ma "The Bean Man" and his "Wanigan Associates" bean network. I ordered his bean catalog and got 35 varieties of heirloom beans from him in February 1978. That was when I was off and runing with obscure bean varieties or heirlooms. I very rarely bought seed from seed catalogs after that. I still do grow some of the old commercial snap bean varieties of the 1950's and 60's. I've even obtained some pre-1950 bush snap bean varieties that were released by seed companies in the 1930's and 40's.

Q: Do you have a personal favorite bean variety?

A: I have so many bean varieties that it's a challenge to pick an absolute favorite. There are many good beans to grow. I would say for the last 10 years a pole bean called Louisiana AKA Louisiana Snap Bean. Is currently my top favorite snap bean to grow and use. It is very productive and it's beautiful to look at on the vine. Straight 7 to 8 inch green pods that are round and striped in purple. Of course those purple stripes fade away when cooked. I don't have a favorite dry bean. Again there are many good ones.
  

Q: On average, how many types of beans do you grow in a year and how big is your garden?

A: I grow about 150 varieties of beans in most seasons. Currently I cultivate about 4,000 square feet of garden space. I have a small amount of garden ground in my back yard and two flower beds around my house that are really used for tomatoes and beans most of the time. I have two offsite gardens on other people's property that I obtained by placing want ads in our local newspaper. One site is three miles from my house and it's about 2,200 square feet. The other offsite is 9 miles from my house and is behind a deer fence that I had constructed in 2017 at a cost of almost $4,000. This fenced off gardening enclosure is 80 feet long and 48 feet wide. It contains two 960 square foot raised bed garden plots that I had built at an approximate expense of about $3,300. The soil is beautiful loamy black soil but the drainage was not good so the raised beds so far seem to have fixed my drainage problem. Each bed has about 10 inches of topsoil that of course was already there. So my beans grown there might have 18 to 20 inches of topsoil to sink there roots into. I have a small roto-tiller that I load up on a small 4 foot trailer to go to my offsites to work the gardens there.   

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?

A: I can't say I ever had a mentor. There is nobody that I had that guided me or I asked gardening advice from. A lot of what I know I have probably picked up in reading here and there in books or articles. Plus my own garden experience. My father gardened in the 1950's when I was a small child which I observed and I think gardening just must have appealed to me. I'm the only one of 4 other siblings that have taken on gardening in a big way. There are people in the seed world that I have admired. John Withee with his Wanigan Associates bean network. Who had the foresight to seek out and save old bean varieties. I never met him I'm sorry to say. I have great admiration for the founders of the Seed Savers Exchange Kent and Diane Whealy. I joined SSE as a member in late 1978. They came to the realization that when older gardeners who were also saving old varieties of all sorts of cultivars passed away. The varieties they kept could possibly become extinct. Since the start of Seed Savers Exchange I think seed saving of heirloom varieties has caught on internationally also. I think another person to admire was Gary Nabhan who I believe started Native Seed Search in New Mexico. He had sounded the alarm I believe about loss of varieties and genetic loss of many of our food crops back in the late 1960's or early 70's. These people might just have been the spark that got all this heirloom seed saving going with the last 50 years. 

Side note: Russell Crow may not have had a mentor, but he's certainly one of mine!

This photo is one of the raised beds behind the deer fence with the bush beans at their peak of beauty in July last year.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom beans do you have in your personal seed collection?

A: My bean collection contains probably close to 1,300 varieties including original beans of mine that came about from outcrosses. I'm not a purist when it comes to heirlooms. I also have an open mind towards new cultivars. After all there might be over 100,000 bean varieties in the world today. Considering the they all genetically came from their wild ancestors in Central and South America that as far as they know number about 50 varieties in the wild today. Where did all these other bean varieties come from. They have to be the result of crossing and selecting by all kinds of people over a number of centuries. I think the process even continues today.    

Q: Do you sell seeds and, if so, how do people get in touch with you?

A: I do sell seeds. My website A Bean Collectors Window.com does attract people that are searching for beans on the internet and find my website. Last year I had 144 paying customers from around the U.S., Canada, all over Europe, South Africa, and I've even sent beans to people in the Ukraine and Russia. I have also attended 4 different seed swaps in various states like Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky where I have sold a small number of beans.   

Q: What is the rarest bean seed in your collection right now?

A: That might be difficult to know but it might be a recent bean I got from a fellow in eastern Kentucky who is a registered member of the Cherokee nation. I got a bean from him called Awahsohs Bear. How many people know this native bean. I would think not too many. I don't know where he collects his native beans. He live in the mountains of south eastern Kentucky. 

If you want to visit Russell Crow's website, A Bean Collector's Window, click here.

You can also find him in Heirloom Bean Addicts Anonymous. Click here to join. He can also be found in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous. Click here to join.

So, in conclusion, I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Russell Crow for agreeing to do a Q & A for me. He may not have had a mentor, but he inspires people more than he can possibly know. I know. I'm one of those inspired people!