We brought in these calypso beans primarily as seed this year in the hopes of having more Northeast-grown calypso beans to offer in the next year or two. Though a lot of the striking color contrast in their seed coat softens through cooking, they still remain a beautiful subtly two-toned bean with a lovely texture. In order to hype up these beautiful beans in anticipation of future local harvests we are offering them here.

A majority of the world’s bean seed starts out in Idaho due to their ideal climate and rigorous laws around safe-guarding their seed fields. Almost all commercial bean seed and those offered in seed catalogs originated in Idaho. I got to visit some of the facilities while attending Native Seeds/SEARCH Seed School a decade ago.

One of our long-term goals is to partner with seed folk in Idaho to increase the quality and quantity of bean varieties that are well-suited in the Northeast, where anthracnose and bean mosaic virus currently are a real threat to farmer-saved seed.