Italian Landrace Beans

[grunt]

From the look of the pods, those have to be some sort of cow pea, don't they?

[12540dumont]

From the Viterbo province in Lazio Region, (relatively closed to Rome), comes the Fagiolina del Trasimeno. Fagionalina means more or less little bean, while Trasimeno is a lake in central Italy. It’s famous for being really tasty and quick to cook.


The bean is small, not so different in dimension from a rice grain. Till 1970 it was regularly grown all around Trasimeno Lake, especially in Castiglione del lago, Passignano e Tuoro villages. Fagiolina del Trasimeno needs a huge amount of water and it’s sensitive to diseases and varmints.

Usually the producers are family based firm with a maximum of 3 workers and cultivate about 7-8 quintals of Fagiolina a year. It’s estimated, by Slow Food, that to produce just one quintal are required 570 hours of human labour. It's one of those protected varieties.


Fagiolina del Trasimeno, whose scientific name is Vigna unguicolata, has a history starting in Africa before to arrive in Umbria (Italy). Teofasto, student of Aristotele, provide evidence of its use in 300 B.C. in Greece. In first centuary A.D., Plinio Il Vecchio demonstrated it presence in the Etruscan and Roman society.

And that my dear Dan, is all that I know. How's your garden?

[raymondo]

I've found that when Italians use the word fagiolina they are often referring to cowpeas. I had one called Fagiolina Frustra but lost it through carelessness.

[grunt]

Vigna unguicolata is cowpea.
Everything is very late this year, because our summer didn't really start until the end of the first week of August. I have a little over a dozen tomatoes showing color other than green = and i have 430 plants this year. I've stopped picking bush beans now, to let the remainder become seed for next year/trades, etc. Carrots have nice shoulders already, but real skinny legs yet = which is okay, because they have until October to put some meat on. Cherries and apricots are finished now, apples, pears and plums are still to come, mostly pretty reasonable crops. Grapes and blackberries will flirt with frost before they fully ripen this year. Have to remember to copper spray the inside of my winter storage bin before I put the carrots and spuds away for the winter.
Next year sees another change in gardening = I have been informed in no uncertain terms, that I am going to go fishing and travel a bit more than I have been = and she is right, I garden because I love it, but it has been dictating how my life is lived lately.
Time to step back and see what's happening here, and re-arrange things so that I do other important things as well.
I have, in short, been reminded of what I tell every one else = you only get to go around once, so get it right, and have fun.
Cheers

[cortona]

i agree with all your info holly, the maternal branch of my family come from tuoro sul trasimeno so i have my seeds; but about the need of water....we are used to grow it without irrigation.. obviusly if you irrigate you can have a larger crop but... it survive and do it's job anyway

[12540dumont]

Thanks, Cortona! So important to pass on the right info to go with the seed. Still waiting for you to post pictures of your corn! Holly

[12540dumont]

Borlotto Lamon. This was the control bean

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[12540dumont]

Badda Nero. This was one of the hardest beans to get.

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[12540dumont]

Griggio de Tolmezzo. This bean does not know that it's 100 degrees and late August. It is still putting out green growth. There's a few others like this that seem like they're just getting warmed up. Me, I'm wilted.

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[12540dumont]

As you can see across the trial, some are just about done and some show no sign of slackening. I've just begun harvesting what the pigs didn't get of the bush beans. I'll put up some pictures of that in a few days.

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[olddog]

Lovely, lovely beans, and an amazing lot of work. I am just beginning in vegetable, fruit seed saving, and your work is encouraging me. Thank you for posting the pictures.

[olddog]

Here goes, just a quick question. The Wang Kong runner bean does not cross with the other rare beans in the bean trial?

[12540dumont]

Hi Old Dog,
The Runner Beans, Phaseolus Coccineus do not cross with the Phaseolus Vulgaris. However, they do readily cross with other runner beans. The Phaseolus Vulgaris, the rest of the beans do cross, that is why the trial was designed to keep that from happening.

The Runners were planted on the end of the rows as feet cleaning stations. The butter beans in the middle. The Phaseolus Lunatus does not cross with either (butter/lima beans). I will post the trial design, which anyone is free to copy. I had help from 3 Doctors on the design...Kapuler, Kolodge and Deppe. The trial was also surrounded by corn, sunflowers, zinnias and other happy bee things.

All that said, just because you can't see that a cross has happened, doesn't mean that it didn't. Some genes affect the seed coat, some may affect something that I cannot see in the first generation. However, I have done everything in my power to keep that from happening. Note in the trial that no white bean is near any other white bean. No black near any black, etc.

There are 13 beans in the pole trial (The Lamon is planted twice as a control)

This is a 3 year trial. This year is a seed increase and to see if anything just doesn't do well here. The best of the beans will be sent out to be nutritionally tested. I'm looking for protein, flavor, ease of growing, ease of shelling, disease resistance. Next year we'll do a grand tasting. Hopefully from 13 pole beans, I'll come up with something!

Next year I'll run the ones that appear to have done the best here. I have retained some of the original seed to compare and replant with the ones from this year.

The beans in this trial were graciously provided by seed savers in Italy, The Phaseiolus Group in Italy, the USDA and Dan Grunt.

At this year's conclusion, I will send a portion of the beans to distribute. I'm harvesting the ones in the piggy portion...the bush beans. There's not a lot, what there is, Dan Grunt will receive a portion to distribute. I'll post my comments as well.

Thanks for asking. Always willing to chat with a beany. Regards, Holly

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[12540dumont]

Bush Beans. I'm threshing like a shark.

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[olddog]

Holly,
Thank you so much for the explanation, and the pdf. I will study it.
Sorry about the pigs, we have turkeys and ground squirrels here, and they do cause problems but are not as destructive as the pigs. My sympathy.
old dog