We lend outheirloom beans,one packetat a time
A seed library for beans · Gent, since 2019
Our twenty varieties came back to us from allotments, kitchen jars and seed swaps. They only stay alive if they keep going out.
Calypso — first grown out on an allotment in Gentbrugge, 2019.
Bruine Boon — from a grandmother's tin in Ledeberg.
Tongues of Fire — swapped at a seed fair in Brussels, 2021.
Beans thatcome back
A seed bank keeps beans in a freezer. A seed library keeps them in gardens — and counts every jar that returns.
01 Packets lent since 2019
1,312
Ten to twenty seeds in each, hand-counted on Saturday mornings.
02 Came back as seed
77%
Most returns are a jam jar of a hundred beans or more. We only need a handful.
03 Years a dry bean stays sowable
~3
Kept cool, dark and dry. So every variety has to go out into the ground every few summers.
HL-046 One summer, one packet · Cherokee Trail of Tears
From a seed in Mayto a jar in October
Day000
- 000SownPushed three centimetres into soil that has warmed past 12 °C, once the frosts are over.
- 007The hookThe root goes down first. Then a hooked stem hauls the seed's two halves up into the light.
- 014First leavesA pair of simple, heart-shaped leaves. Every leaf after them comes in threes.
- 030ClimbingThe tip sweeps in slow circles until it touches the cane, then winds up it anticlockwise.
- 048FloweringThe flowers mostly pollinate themselves before they open — which is why a variety stays true.
- 066PodsEat them green if you like. For the library, leave them hanging.
- 099DryThe pods turn papery and rattle. Inside is next year's packet.
04 How the library works
Borrow, grow,save, return
- 01
Borrow
Pick one packet each spring: ten to twenty seeds, with the variety's story printed on the back.
- 02
Grow
Sow after the last frost. Keep a few plants just for seed and let their pods dry on the vine.
- 03
Save
Shell the dry pods, dry the beans a little longer, then freeze them for a few days to stop weevils.
- 04
Return
Bring back a jar with more than you borrowed. We test, label and shelve it for next spring.
This year's returns, before sorting.
Came backthis autumn
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Member notes
@Ines, Ledeberg
I borrowed twelve Scarlet Runners for the flowers and ended up returning four hundred beans. The bees on my balcony have never had it so good.
@Joost, Sint-Amandsberg
The Calypso packet taught my kids more about heredity than a school year did. Black on one side, white on the other, every single bean.
@Amira, Muide
My grandmother kept brown beans in a tin by the stove. Finding a jar of Bruine Boon here, with a name and a story, felt like finding her handwriting.
From the notebook
When is a bean ready to save?
Green pods make dinner. Seed wants patience: pods that are papery, beans that rattle and a fingernail test.
12 Sept 2026GrowingRead
Why beans stay true (mostly)
Common beans pollinate themselves inside the closed flower. Runner beans don't, which is why we lend only one runner per member.
3 June 2026ScienceRead
Three sisters on a Gent allotment
Maize for a cane, beans to feed the soil, squash to shade it. An old planting that still works between the tram lines.
20 May 2026PlacesRead
FAQ
HL-011 Calypso
Drag to turn it over
Membership is €12 a year and covers every packet you borrow. If your crop fails, you keep your membership — just tell us what happened.
Slugs, hail, a wet August: crops fail. A note on what went wrong is useful to us too, and you can borrow again next spring.
More than you borrowed — a jam jar is perfect. Keep the rest to eat or to sow again yourself.
Bush varieties do well in a 30-litre pot in full sun. Pole beans need a two-metre cane and a little shelter from the wind.
A few days in the freezer kills bean weevil eggs hiding inside the seed. Dry the beans well first, so no ice forms inside them.
Two per member each year, and only one runner bean — runners cross with each other easily, so two side by side won't stay true.
About three years if it is kept cool, dark and dry, and germination drops a little each year after that. That is why every variety has to keep going out.