Sultan's Green Crescent Bean is focus of Bruce Botanical Food Gardens this season

The Bruce Botanical Food Gardens is a rare experience but in 2015 it was also growing extinct … well almost extinct!

Although the gardens showcase rare, very rare, and endangered food plants, the Sultan’s Green Crescent Bean (at right) was the focus of attention during the 2015 growing season as it is so rare it has almost become extinct.

The beans produced by this very prolific and very unusual green pole bean, were left unpicked to dry on the plant. The dried seeds were then harvested and saved. The gardens have subsequently been in contact with Seeds of Diversity Canada, Canada’s seed bank, and the non-profit gardens will be supplying 40 of the seeds saved from the crop to be held in Canada’s seed vault.

“This very exciting opportunity will form the basis of our children’s volunteer program in the 2016 season,” says Lynne Taylor, executive director of the food gardens. This past season, 24 Huron-Kinloss day campers, ages six to 11, visited the gardens and planted rare heirloom bean seeds (and other vegetables).

“The children were given full rein on the planting of the seeds”, says Taylor. “They instinctively planted them much further apart than the planting instructions recommended. However, not only did the plants grow twice the size but they produced twice the crop of disease-free beans!”

Taylor notes that so many beans were produced even at the end of the season that 165 guests at the food gardens' second annual fund-raising Harvest Dinner were served the beans at the event. The lesson learned? ALWAYS be open to learning something new even from those younger and less experienced, and NEVER underestimate the potential of youngsters, ages six to 11, to provide for their family, and their community.

In fact, the gardens' new children’s program is expected to be titled ‘Kids Feed Community’. Children will be invited to participate as Junior Agricultural Stewards to help prepare planting beds, and then plant, maintain, and harvest the beans and the seeds of the Sultan’s Green Crescent Bean to help save it from the extinction list.

If you would like your child to be involved in this agricultural stewardship program, contact the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens by E-mail at ltaylor@bbfg.org. For more information on Seeds of Diversity Canada, visit www.seeds.ca



Curtis Lotton of Ripley is shown with the rare heirloom beans he helped plant and maintain at the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley; these beans were served at the 2015 Harvest Dinner in September; photos by Lynne Taylor