These heirloom beans from Québec have been grown by the same family for almost 200 years!
In 2020, long time seed saver Mr. René Paquet was given “Les Beans à Nadeau” (Nadeau’s Beans) by Mr. Yves Nadeau of Neuville, Québec (the city’s coat of arms is pictured). Mr Nadeau explained that the beans had been grown in Québec by his father’s adoptive parents — Ulric Brousseau and Donalda Soulard — and their family for almost 200 years.
In 2025, we grew these excellent beans for the first time. We were impressed with their productivity and their ability to dry down early — by the end of August/early September. And impressed by how compact the plants were (18″ tall).
The dry beans are plumb and a striking colour – a cream colour with a yellow-light green tint. You can also eat the green beans when young.
Mr. Paquet provides a description of how to use the beans on the ‘Seeds of Diversity’ Seed Exchange website. He writes: “These dry beans are known to make excellent cassoulets and very good baked beans, sweet and velvety. The young pods can be eaten fresh, and the beans can also be harvested early as green flageolet beans.”
Thank you to Mr. Paquet for sharing seeds with us.
How to Plant
Sowing: Plant bean seeds in the spring when the soil warms up — usually the end of May/early June. Keep soil moist until seedlings emerge (1 week or so).
Spacing: Space seeds 3 inches or so apart and sow 1 inch or so deep.
Thinning: Thin to 6 inches apart once seedlings are up (3 to 4 inches tall).
How to Pick Dry Beans: Pick beans when the pods are dry on the plant. All of our dry bean varieties have to reliably dry down by around Sept 15 (when we risk getting frost) and this one does. However, if there is a frost threatening and your beans still need time to dry, pick the pods and bring them inside to dry. They are ready as dry beans when the pods are ‘crunchy’ dry. Shell and use.
Within Canada only shipping on beans, thank you.
