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Post by blueadzuki on Dec 10, 2014 15:19:33 GMT -5
Back from the city and REALLY bad news. When I went into my regular herb shop the proprietress informed me that the "had no more" rice beans. This could just mean they are out for the moment (the bin was really, really low last week) But based on the fact they have also disappeared from the OTHER shop I frequent which is owned by the same parent company, I'm rather afraid that what she meant is that the parent company is no longer carrying them in their shops (or mung beans which have pulled a similar disappearing act). This is bad in and of itself since I like having some rice beans to go through on the ride home, just to amuse myself. But down the road this is DEVASTATING since it would mean they aren't going to be getting the "good" kinds in come spring, so my potential supply of them and the non red adzukis just plummeted. I'm probably back to just hunting for bags of useable stuff, and given that the last place I found those can't seem to get more in, that probably won't amount to much (I'm banking on finding a few bags at the other H-mart branches when the New Year rolls around and I'm visiting Flushing, but I suspect after those the supply will be dried up again) And my supply of the larger salt and pepper adzukis has probably all but dried up, since off the top of my head, I only know of two places (both in Flushing) that carry that type of mung and MIGHT be unaffiliated with the chain. It seems likely that, after this year the only rice beans and adzukis I'll have to work with is whatever I can get back from my own planting. It also means that if anyone want any leftover red rice beans to try and grow, it is probably better to contact me sooner rather than later. Under the circumstances I'm filing away what I have indefinitely (i.e. I'm not tossing it out to the birds, like I normally do when the pile gets too unwieldy, but they won't stay good forever (though I seem to recall something along the lines that rice beans stay viable for almost a decade, so it may not be QUITE as urgent as I am making it out.
Maybe next week I'll go back to doing black soybeans until January comes.
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Post by blueadzuki on Dec 11, 2014 22:23:55 GMT -5
12/11
Did a quick run to Bhavik today, just to have some stuff to play around with. Bought one 4 lb bag of mothe beans and a 2 lb bag of horse gram.
The mothe bean finds were interesting, if a bit meagre (looks like they corrected whatever issue it was that was causing all those guar seeds to get into the mix, there were none of those). Few mungs, few streaked mothe beans and one black one (that's why I bought that bag; I saw the black one and I'm still pretty short on black mothe.
The big surprise find is a small grey seed, that I think is some sort of cucurbit. Possibly related to the Kemarogan I used to find from time to time in the rice beans (though I compared it with my seed zoo packet seeds, and it's not identical, so probably not the same species).
Horse gram wasn't much better. Few black grams (and unlike the mothe beans I've got plenty of black horse gram, especially considering it's too long season to grow here). There was one seed of that "notch-keel" bindweed which will be useful (I don't see it much anymore in the rice beans, and it IS the only bindweed family member I've found to date that is pretty enough of flower and tame enough of habit I actually would WANT to grow it) but the rest was the usual smattering of rice and sorghum grains plus one brassica seed.
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Post by blueadzuki on Dec 26, 2014 13:50:38 GMT -5
Bit of Bad news (mostly for blackox, but techically for anyone growing cowpeas, I assume) The company that packaged that "Healthy Bean" mix I was getting the mottled eye cowpeas from has altered it's formula, and the mottled eyes have been replaced by a larger black eyed cowpea. I managed to find 5 "old" bags today, so I have a bit of a backup stock but I doubt I will be able to take that "I can always get more" view anymore.Theoreticically, come January when I start prowling Flushing again (where they are two other H-Marts I know of) I may find some more old stock (though I think the stuff sells readily enough to make that unlikely six months from now) Maybe I'll be lucky and it's a seasonal thing (i.e. they'll go back to the mottled eye later. But I'm not holding my breath. Bit of good news, the mottled eye cowpeas are back. Looks like it's a seasonal thing after all. Either that or the last shipment the store got has been sitting in the warehouse for a LONG time. In any case, it looks like, should a repeat of last year's incident (where all of the peas got devoured by animals as soon as they went into the ground) I should be able to replace them. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 26, 2014 15:01:42 GMT -5
Blue, so you are not looking for Red adzuki beans? I was in SF, Chinatown and there were 2 stores that carried nothing but seeds. Well, seeds and dried mushrooms. I bought a package of spinach. (Hey, I knew what it was). Kicking myself now because I didn't buy bok choi. Thought I had lots of it. But I did pick up a bag of red adzuki beans.
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Post by blueadzuki on Dec 26, 2014 15:17:19 GMT -5
Nah, with my limited space, red are too common for me to deal with (same reason I don't plant mungs that are green, or mothe's that are tan) . Most of the red I grow is either as a seasonal barometer (I throw red in the ground, and when they come up, THEN I plant the non-red that way I don't waste non red seed by screwing up planting times and putting seed in when it is too cold for it) or are unusual in some other way (say being extremely small (smaller than a standard mung bean) large (pinto bean or bigger) an odd shape (very long or very short and so on). I suppose if I ever let one grown long enough to flower and the flowers came out some color OTHER than yellow, I'd hold on to that one as well (according to the web there are pink and white flowered adzuki's but I have yet to actually see one in person. Plus, there is a small amount of red that shows up inadvertently either by sneaking past me in the rice beans (it's the same shade of red so it's easy to miss one) or color changes (the line between red and tan is often blurry and tans turning out to be slightly immature or malformed reds and "turning back" is common.
Oh and there is a chance that there is hybrid, half adzuki/half rice (I think they can cross)showing up sometimes, so I also save any rice beans that are unusually short and fat in case they prove to be progeny of such crosses.
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Post by blueadzuki on Dec 31, 2014 19:18:21 GMT -5
Minor uptdate
Looks like the older packages of the Lucky Eight Brand rice beans may also be of the correct type (the newer, fresher looking redesigned bags seem to not be) though a lot less rich in them than the red bags from H-mart are. I'm still committed to starting my prowling of Flushing next Wednesday, but on those weeks when I don't actually find any usable material there (and, after the first few weeks, that will probably be a lot of them) I realize that, with my new knowledge of some additional subway lines, doing that part of Manhattan AFTER a day in flushing would really only add maybe 20 or so minutes to my whole daily trip, so popping back them and picking up a few more bags is not infeasible (at least, until they run out of the old bags)
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 7, 2015 21:47:06 GMT -5
It's the New Year, so, as in previous years I have swapped my hunting ground from Manhattan's Chinatown to Flushing's.
Unfortunately most preliminary results are not promising so far. In fact, I actually wound up taking a subway trip back to Manhattan AFTER finishing in Flushing, just to go to the supermarket I found last week (the one which had rice beans that proved to have a few alternate color adzukis mixed in) since I found none in Flushing. Actually I may end up doing that EVERY week, at least until I find some decent material closer.
Actually I didn't find a lot of rice beans available in Flushing PERIOD. Only about half of the markets I went to were even still SELLING them, and many of those that were had ridiculously low amounts. I'm seriously wondering if there is actually some shortage in the rice bean supply, or this is actually a crop falling out of favor (I know it's falling out of common use in much of it's range, but China has always been a pretty deep bastion of use for it.)
Most of those I did see were of the Golden Lion brand, which no longer has much to interest me with regards to planting, or for that matter, for eating, if I felt so inclined (the beans in the Golden Lion bags often look as those they were soaked at some point allowed to rot for a while and then allowed dried back down. . Plus there is a disturbing amount of mud caked on and in them.)
Two stores did have other brands. One was one I am familiar with. It is possible I may go back there at some point in the future since those bag's contents looked similar to the kind I was buying at the other herb shop in Manhattan, and, once the supply of Manhattan bags is exhausted (as I said last week, it looks like only the older bags have the adzukis so the supply while still generous, is finite, and likely not to be renewed.) I suppose such bags are better than nothing. I may not get any more adzukis but at least they still have rice beans that are mottled and or white, plus (assuming they are the same) an unusually high count of really rare color combos, like pinto and speckled.
The other was a brand I have not seen before. Visually it sort of LOOKED like the "right" kind of rice bean (bigger, lighter red, and sort of dull) However I looked over 5-10 bags and saw no adzukis OR alternate colors, so as far as I can see, those bags are pure red. But again, when better supplies run out, I may go back then and take a closer look.
The one really GOOD find I had in flushing concerns soybeans. A new herb shop (Korean) opened in the area I was in today, and it has a buy by the scoop bag of black soybeans that have an ASTONISHING amount of other colors (as well as a proprietor who speaks excellent English and the kind of attitude that finds someone looking for growing material intriguing, as opposed to annoying). The bag is rich in such things as green skinned black hilumed soybean, brown ones and some odd white types. I even found one with tiger stripes. And as an added bonus I also found two new unknowns; a small red seed I originally though was a pea but seems to actually be some sort of dried berry and a brown wedge shaped seed that is either some sort of cucurbit or some sort of persimmon (though it seems smaller and fatter than the pits of any of the kinds of persimmon I am familiar with.
My best chance on finding the "right" rice beans, is I think the H-marts in Flushing (since it was at my local H-mart I last saw them). I managed to make it to one of them today but it did not carry the rice beans (or the mixed beans with the interesting cowpeas). I'll try and get to the other one next week to check (I had originally planned to do both today, but one I was on the ground, I remembered that the second H-mart is actually about 14 blocks in the direction OPPOSITE of the way I was planning to go (uphill all the way), and I did not have time to deviate from my itinerary that much, especially since said itinerary included a trip to Dumpling Galaxy, which I've been fantasizing about doing ever since it got reviewed in the New York Times Dining Section last November.
Speaking of H-Mart I did get back to my local one last Monday and managed to pick up some of the bean mix bags I passed on last time. More or less they were as expected, a mixture of mottled eye and brown eyed cowpeas (with the odd completely mottled one thrown in), a sprinkling of white runner beans, the odd smaller older looking field pea mixed in with more modern looking green ones The usual odd mix of big Kabuli type chickpeas and smaller desi type ones (I may end up saving the kabuli ones as well as the mottled eye cowpeas and such I usually save, it looks like they may have gone back to those supersized ones, the ones that swell up to the size of a small fava.
The main reason I am mentioning it is that there IS something I haven't seen before in the common beans in the mix. There were the usual deviations from the standard common bean in the mix (a long maroon one that looks sort of like a kidney bean, but without the "curve") some mottled ones, a few smaller white black and streaked ones and so on. But besides these were four or five of something else, notable for being extremely purple and incredibly round and fat, nearly spherical. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that the bag's contents come from (and presumably are grown in) China I'd say they look a bit like that purple skinned Appalachian bean Sandhill sells.
Will report again next week
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 9, 2015 14:16:12 GMT -5
In that case the "black peas" contain some things that are probably not, strictly speaking, peas. Pity the resolution in the picture isn't good enough to see any of the hila clearly; that would REALLY help in figuring out if they were peas. I suppose final answers will come in the spring when I open the pint bottle I filled with the things, toss some in the ground, hope that a few make it past the critters (one advantage I have, with a full bottle, I'll at least have a HECK of a lot of backup if it doesn't to try again) and then see if my observational talents will let me tell a vetch plant from a lentil plant from a pea plant (sounds easy, but I imagine that, if they ARE peas their plants will be on the gracile and thready side.)
Since I had some spare time (and I had the bottle open to do a check-over anyway below is a picture of the seed in question (the "is it a vetch, or a lentil" stuff).
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 14, 2015 20:50:18 GMT -5
1/14/15
Back from Flushing and good news, I FINALLY found a store with the "correct" brand of rice beans. So, at least for the next few weeks I don't have to take the extra trip to Manhattan.
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Post by steev on Jan 15, 2015 1:05:39 GMT -5
Less travel time is always a blessing; I look forward to when I don't have to commute to farm.
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Post by darrenabbey on Jan 15, 2015 5:21:49 GMT -5
The one really GOOD find I had in flushing concerns soybeans. A new herb shop (Korean) opened in the area I was in today, and it has a buy by the scoop bag of black soybeans that have an ASTONISHING amount of other colors (as well as a proprietor who speaks excellent English and the kind of attitude that finds someone looking for growing material intriguing, as opposed to annoying). The bag is rich in such things as green skinned black hilumed soybean, brown ones and some odd white types. I even found one with tiger stripes. And as an added bonus I also found two new unknowns; a small red seed I originally though was a pea but seems to actually be some sort of dried berry and a brown wedge shaped seed that is either some sort of cucurbit or some sort of persimmon (though it seems smaller and fatter than the pits of any of the kinds of persimmon I am familiar with. A striped soybean... like this one? I found the image at: www.gene.affrc.go.jp/databases-plant_images_detail_en.php?plno=5420170001 |
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 15, 2015 8:13:12 GMT -5
Actually, I that one isn't striped, it's broken. Those "stripes" are actually ruptures in the outer part of the seed coat (I can tell from their pattern). Quite a few soybeans get those. I find them all the time (especially with the darker coated ones).
What I found (which is a bit rarer) is one with actual color stripes on the coat (tan on black in this case)like you'd see on a common bean. That isn't so common, still less if the stripes seem to be actual genetics as opposed to the kind you get from soybean mottle virus. You can tell the difference with practice. Mottle virus stripes tend to be straight (the real ones usually follow the curvature of the bean, since they've been there since the bean was formed) and have a jagged look, like they were applied with a tiny painbrush (real ones tend to be smoother in outline) There's also the color, most mottle stripes are purple (on white buff skinned) or red/greenish (on blacks, and green skins)
In fact, I think this is only the second time I've seen one with legit striping (the other, which showed up in a bag last year is the reverse; tan skin, black stripes).
And before anyone asks, I refer to the pattern where there is a ring of color running along the back of the seed (the side opposite the hilum) such as you see on Agate (and a few of the types Zeedman has) as "saddled" I'd call them "ringed" except I know that they are soybeans that actually DO have a ring on their coats like the one on "eyed" cowpeas. I had one, once (unfortunately it died of pythium before becoming a plant that would make more.) I'd call THOSE "eyed" soybeans, except a lot of literature uses "eye" to describe hilum color (it's the same dilemma I have with the field peas I have that have black or brown hila. People are so used to using the term "black eyed peas" to refer to the cowpea that if I called those peas "black eyed" people would just get confused.)
Incidentally, this weeks stuff yield one of the other rarities, a soybean who coat has speckles (red on black, in this case, I've seen yellow on black as well) Actually two, since there was a brownish one with the mottling I think of as "wood pattern" (since it looks like wood grain). One of these day's when I really have time to kill (say when I reach the point where I've re-checked all the areas of Flushing, and know exactly where I am having lunch and how long it will take me to get there) I really should put the proprietors tolerance to the test and ask him if I can do a full search (i.e. pull out my tray flashlight and ziplocs, go through the whole bag, then put the bits I don't want back. He just might say yes.
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Post by darrenabbey on Jan 15, 2015 12:42:13 GMT -5
interesting. The only ones I've encountered (with no searching) have been solid colors in a few shades.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 15, 2015 15:32:23 GMT -5
Not surprised. Soybeans are one of those things where the number of possible colors and patterns you can encounter genetically is much, much bigger than the number you are likely to encounter conventionally. It's the adzuki/mung bean situation again; genetically you can get pretty much any color of the rainbow, but if you want your crop to be one you can actually sell nowadays, it better be red/green. Soybeans actually come in almost as many colors and patterns as the common bean, but nearly all of the varieties you bump into will be one of four solid colors, white (buff), black, brown, and green. (and the last two of these are much less common than the first two)*. Multiply that by maybe 4x to cover the various hilum colors (colorless, light brown, dark brown, and black)** Then double that to cover the two possible cotyledon colors yellow and green*** (though multiple shades exist here as well). Between those, you've covered maybe 95% of all soybeans you are likely to bump into (and most of the last 5% is taken up by the saddled strains like Agate)
*At least, among soy being sold to be consumed as mature seed. There are quite a lot of brown and green coated types among the sub group of varieties bred for edamame production, probably because since edamame is eaten when it's green anyway, the final color of the seeds doesn't matter much.
** Soybeans are actually classified color wise by the hilum by the USDA. Seed coat color is not even noted.(no, it doesn't make much sense to me either). And technically this part doesn't apply to black since any of the other are going to show up black on that anyway (sort of like my black skinned black eyed peas, the only way you know the eye is there is to see the seed when it is half ripe.)
*** though again you usually only see green cots in black skinned soy or edamame strains. Chinese/Japanese people tend to use black soybean to make things like soy and black bean sauce; where the inner color of the bean is sort of irrelevant (by the time it's fermented and ground up it's going to be dark brown anyway. White/Buff on the other hand, often are bought by people wanting to make their own tofu, and tofu is expected to be snow white when it is made. It's a bit of a pity that they think this way. Some of the best soymilk I ever made was made from a kind of green cotyledon soybean. The color is a bit odd, but not exactly unattractive (it sort of looks like melted green tea ice cream)
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 29, 2015 17:24:53 GMT -5
1/28/15
Mixed news here. The Bad news is that I have exhausted the supply of "good" rice beans in flushing so as of next week, I'm back to doing the extra Manhattan run (at least, until I exhaust THAT supply too).
The good news is that the final run had a nice surprise, there was actually a mottled RED adzuki bean, which seems to be one of the rarest color combos, for some odd reason (It's odd because as red is the default base color, you'd expect red with mottle to be really, really common (and in rice beans it actually is it's probably the third commonest color, after flat red and tan to cream. The only guess I can make as to why is that, in both adzukis and rice beans mottling on the seed coat seems to be a trait most associated with the original wild genes. Adzukis have been more intensely bred and selected than rice beans, so the percentage of ones with wild traits may be a lot lower.)So one more to the pile (I think that brings my mottled red total up to about six seeds)
And the soy at the health food store continues to provide; I'm actually clearing one or two mottled ones PER TRIP now. If this keeps up I may have accumulated enough by spring to actually be able to try growing the mottled out and getting a working strain.
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