The Dog Eye Bean and The Eagle With Spreading Wings Beans

Partly as a result of my other recent posts about Appalachian Heritage beans and shucked beans I have had an ongoing e-mail exchange with my friend Frank Barnett who is one of the most important experts in the entire country on Appalachian Heritage beans.  Frank has spent  years locating, collecting, and saving Appalachian Heritage beans and has several hundred varieties in his collection.  He grows a large crop each year, sometimes beginning with as little as the seeds from one bean and protecting, propagating, and saving the bean in amounts large enough to be viable long term.  If he has only a few seeds for a particular variety, he will plant them in one spot and build a protective wire or mesh cage about 12 feet tall to set over the growing bean vines to protect them from animals.  Bill Best my other Appalachian Heritage crop expert says that he has regularly used poles about 12 feet tall topped with a bicycle rim to which he attaches strong strings so the bean vines can grow up the strings and be protected.  At the end of the first year with these rare varieties for which they have only a small amount of seeds, every bean will be dried and saved for seed.  In the second year, it might be possible to plant one short row from which nearly all the seed will be saved again.  Or if this second year is particularly abundant, they might try to eat one small mess of beans and save the majority of the seeds.  

As a result of these recent e-mails between Frank Barnett and myself, Frank recently sent me photographs of two beans which he is working to save. They are two of the most unique and appropriately named beans I have ever seen. 

Frank and I have also had a message or two back and forth about the nomenclature of Appalachian Heritage beans and I hope my readers will find it as fascinating as I have.  For the majority of this post, I will use Frank's own words since he is the real expert.  I am simply the messenger attempting to pass on his excellent knowledge to as many people as possible, especially those of you in the Central and Southern Appalachian region.  As the title says above, the two varieties of bean Frank and I have discussed are the Dog Eye Bean and the Eagle With Spreading Wings Bean.  The photograph attached to this paragraph is of the Dog Eye Bean and Frank Barnett took the photos and grew both beans.  As soon as you look at the photos of the individual bean seeds in the photo, it is easy to see why it is called the Dog Eye Bean.  The eye of the bean looks a great deal like the eye of a dog.  

The second bean which Frank sent me a photo of is called the Eagle With Spreading Wings Bean and it is just as appropriately named as the Dog Eye Bean.  It is truly a compelling photograph when you combine it with the name.  Until I saw these photographs, I had no idea there could be so much variety in the appearance of individual bean seeds. That is a very graphic name which is fully justified when you see the photograph of the bean seeds with their very distinctive eye. 

As I said earlier, these photographs caused me to engage in an e-mail exchange with Frank Barnett and to ask his permission to use his photographs and messages in a blog post to which he consented.  However, his copyright should be respected and protected if you choose to pass this blog post, these photographs, Frank's e-mail messages as inserted below, or any portion of this blog post.  Also, please not that with recent changes to the Blogspot format and software that it is not currently possible to insert a caption at the bottom of a photograph as I have always done previously.  The bottom line is simply that you should honor both my authorship and Frank's.  I have also done a Google search for more information about these two incredibly unique beans and found nothing which should tell you just how cutting edge Frank Barnett's work with Appalachian Heritage beans really is.  

When Frank sent me his first e-mail on September 29, 2020, he simply sent the photographs appropriately labeled with their respective names in response to my earlier writing about the Lazy Wife Greasy Bean to which I responded with the following e-mail message: 

"Frank,        Those are interesting beans with very appropriate names.  Candice & I went to Bill's on Thursday and bought some Lazy Wife Greasy Beans, froze four bags and ate one last night.  We really like the taste.  Bill & I were talking as we have a few times before about the fact that we both agree that you really should write a book about your exploits in the world of Appalachian Heritag Beans.  Winter is coming on and when you get the gardens put to bed it would be a great time to start."  (R. Hicks E-mail September 29, 2020)

 Frank responded on October 4, 2020, with the following e-mail message: 

"Roger,  You all need to come and visit me especially when I have beans ready in the garden. Like my Grandma I will draw a fresh bucket of water from the well (actually in these days and times, bottled spring water from the refrigerator ) and give you all a mess of beans to take home.  My garden here at the house in around 50ft by 100ft. It is nice to work a little in the garden and then run back into the house with the A/C. I have enjoyed my visits up the hollers and some have been right in the head of a deadening. People have been good to me and most times we have spent hours just talking. I started chasing beans down when I was 59 years old and my rules were to find the actual growers and they had to be older than me. However, now at 73 years old that is becoming more difficult. I do need to organize my notes from the past years. I have certainly enjoyed my retirement of what is now approaching 14 years." (Frank Barnett E-mail, October 4, 2020)

Although that e-mail from Frank may not have a great deal of information about the two beans in discussion here it contains a great deal of other wonderful information about gardening, bean chasing as Frank calls it, and life in the Appalachian mountains all over Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia.  The comment about drawing "a fresh bucket of water" is a throw back to hand dug wells, spring houses, Appalachian hospitality, and general customs all across Appalachia. Both Frank and I have spent years traveling all across Appalachia in a variety of capacities.  Frank grew up in Floyd County Kentucky about 25 miles or so from where I grew up in Knott County and both of us have spent the majority of our lives in the region although we also spent several years outside the region and have traveled extensively in the United States.  We both like to believe we understand Appalachia and Appalachian people.  I responded to Frank's message above with the message below: 

"Frank,  We have gone to Bill's in the last few days and spent a couple of hours with Bill and Rene' but, due to the second surge of Covid which is devastating the state, we are back to pretty much where we were in March and April in terms of low contacts and self isolation.  With Candice's general condition, we cannot take a chance on getting out much.  But we appreciate the offer to visit and will when Covid is under control and an ethically produced, tested, and confirmed vaccine is being widely marketed by public health officials in the Joe Biden administration.  Maybe we can do it next year at bean picking time but we don't need to have the beans to agree to the visit.  If an appropriate vaccine from a company with no ties to TRAITOR Trump is available in the spring, we would be willing to visit then.  And, if you are out in the general area of Morgan County, under the aforesaid terms, we would be glad to have you visit here." (R. Hicks E-mail October 5, 2020)

Candice and I have visited with Frank on only one occasion when we shared a lunch with him in a fine Italian restaurant not far from his home near Georgetown, Kentucky.  We have also visited with Bill Best at the Lexington Farmers Market where he sells beans, the Berea Farmers Market, and the aforementioned visit at his farm near Berea during the first few days of October.  But all three of us (Bill, Frank, and I) regularly e-mail each other and often include all contacts in the group on our messages.  They have taught me a lot about beans, farming, eating wholesome homegrown foods, and Appalachia, Appalachian Culture, and life in general.   So, Frank responded to my E-mail of October 5, 2020, above on October 5, 2020, with the following discussion of beans, bean chasing, and raising beans.

"Sure you can do a blog about Dog Eyes and Eagles but use the last photo I sent of the Eagle Spreading Wings. There has always been a big discussion on FaceBook about Hazard Red Eyed Fall beans and Leslie Tenderpods being the same varity. Last week the Clay Bank Fall bean from me was mentioned and I had to tell everyone that the bean was from Leslie County at a spot called Hell for Certain. And besides that are at least 4 sub varieties that folks want to call Hazard Red Eyed Fall beans but folks in Perry County know better. I will try to put something together tonight that is clearer.  Maybe I need to add the Big Teddy story about the bean I got at the Morgan County Sorghum Fest a few years back, a big old boy from Owsley County selling his beans."  (Frank Barnett E-mail, October 5, 2020)

Obviously, in that message immediately above, Frank briefly mentioned several more varieties of Appalachian Heritage beans including the Hazard Red Eyed Fall Bean and Leslie Tender Pods which are probably the same variety.  He also mentioned a bean he had gotten during a visit to the Morgan County Sorghum Festival in my home county and the Clay Bank Fall Bean from a spot he called Hell For Certain.  But I have always known that creek in Leslie County Kentucky as being Hell Fer Sartain as it is called in Leonard Roberts' wonderful book of Appalachian folk tales with the title "South From Hell Fer Sartain".  But the message immediately above tells a lot about how hard Frank Barnett has worked in his efforts to save as many Appalachian Heritage beans since his retirement from IBM about 14 years ago.  He has traveled thousands of miles, visited with hundreds of small mountain farmers, driven up many small, isolated hollows, and eaten a lot of good meals in little houses with common people who welcomed him in, gave him a share of what little or much they had, and treated him like a friend even though they had often never met this man who seemed to enjoy good beans as much as they did.  

Frank and I have had a few more messages back and forth since October 5, 2020, about Appalachia, our common raising in Eastern Kentucky, and our love for traveling narrow, two lane mountain roads all over Appalachia, and learning everything we can from older Appalachians as soon as we can before any more of it is lost.  If you feel the same way, contact me at my E-mail address rchicks@mrtc.com and tell me your stories.  It would be wonderful if you allowed me to pass that information along so other Appalachians can benefit from it also.   Frank also sent me this photo on October 8, 2020, of our mutual friend, national Appalachian Heritage crop expert Bill Best with his freshly made shucked beans.