Cady Goodwind

Many of the Appalachian peoples grew and saved some of the early Cherokee seed varieties, some of these are available at Sustainable Mountain Agriculture site..   https://www.heirlooms.org/
 
The descriptions aren't detailed, but you may find some of the beans and others you might be looking for, and it is a good "overlook" of the traditions of heirlooms.. the site has a few informative articles explaining the cultural whys of "greasy beans" and "short cut" beans...worth a look.
Also, this site https://www.appalachianheirloomplantfarm.com/  has some very hard to find varieties.
And one local to me,  https://www.wrightsdaylily.com/beans.html
they also have tomatoes, corn, etc. Good to support any of these seed savers as they are doing great work.
Some of the seeds in these three links have been saved by families for nearly 150 years, so they may be indeed more closely related to what you are looking for, reading the descriptions takes me back (way back, say early 1960's) to listening to the old folks talk about gardening and seeds.

I use to live with and train donkeys, horses and mules, for many years. Donkeys are my favorite, because what most people who don't know them don't know is that they are very different from mules or horses. Donkeys are much smarter, have a much longer memory, enjoy music, have a sense of rhythm are very curious and a have a sometimes silly and amazing sense of humor. During your getting to know them, play to their strengths. I would recommend something like putting a treat under one of two upside down buckets, and when they find it, laugh with them. Do something interesting near them, they like to watch progress, lol!  As other said, take your time, they are really worth it. They also will become tame enough to enjoy going for walks with you long before they let you tack them up, but eventually, it will all be part of a game for them. Life is a game for donkeys.

I am in zone 6b-7a, middle Tn. I have a 4 year old Celeste planted on a south wall of the house and it has not frozen back. In fact, it is now up under the eave, and scratching the window. (Yes, I planted it too close) It is about 10 feet tall and 5 feet wide with probably 10 uprights and looks pretty happy. This year, it had cardinals nest in it, which was interesting, as the nest was close to the window, giving us a "zoo" sort of through the glass view of their activity.  Every year since planting it has put on lots of figs, but they never ripen, they just hang there, green and hard, until our first freeze.. The suggestion for calcium caught my attention (though I live in a high calcium area) and I will try that, as well as mulching with rotting wood chips. But, as it is trying to grow into the living room, lol, I planned on pruning it this winter. Is there any sort of pruning  shape that might help the figs ripen?

Update...Good News!
So, this next cold spell brought us 3 days below freezing with night time temperatures reaching 0, -1 and 3 degrees F.  On the third morning, I am happy to report that even though the surrounding garden had soil frozen to a depth of 2 inches, the soil over the rock was not frozen, and was easy to insert the thermometer in.

When the thermometer hit the rock (under 6 inches of soil) I was surprised to find the thermometer reading 38 F .   The soil at the surface above the rock measured 34! I located the edge of the rock by poking and prodding with a rod. The temperature at the edge of the rock was 34 F  tapering off to frozen at 2 inches away from the edge of the rock.

So, I am guessing that is a very deep outcropping indeed. While I was poking, I think that the rock is bigger and differently shaped than I originally thought, so I may have to rethink the placement of the cold frames, and the surrounding garden (this might explain some poor summer crop results in that part of the garden.) Sunlit areas are at a premium in the limited landscape, so this does change things.
Thanks again Mike for the suggestion of using a thermometer : )

Thank you Mike!
Well, I can't really get to that rock right now as it is under a pile of scrap lumber left over from a garden project that needs to be relocated soon.  : )
But today after I posted, we had our first snow, and no sun, so I took a walk around the yard and the neighboring farm to look at other rocks that are either on the surface or just under, and the snow was melted above them (like one would see over a septic tank) even one that I know of down the lane that is 4 inches under the soil. Of course, one's sees this all the time in the city with asphalt and concrete, but it doesn't necessarily intuitively transfer to your concept of isolated rock outcroppings out in the country. And all my previous farms did not have rocks in such close proximity to growing areas.

We don't have snow often, and I haven't been at this site long, so had never noticed this before. Pretty neat that nature gave me this demonstration just when I asked the question! I did notice that the smaller rocks, say 3 ft in diameter had negligible melting, but the very large ones (like the one I am considering) where completely melted.
For TN, two weeks of night time lows in the single digits has not happened in my lifetime before, so I guess it got me a little concerned about my plans to utilize the rock. Since the freak cold, we have had two warm days before this next cold snap, enough to warm the rocks again, I would presume. But I don't know if they got "really cold" during that spell or not.
I am thinking that if the coldframe is situated in the middle of this "rock island" I might gain more heat than I previously thought, and maybe in the summer I could somehow harness the solar heat build up for some sort dark enclosed herb drying cabinet.

Anyway, thanks again, and I will take your advice of sticking the soil thermometer in both on the rock and beside the rock and then again for the next week as we are supposed to have some crazy cold again this coming week, good time for experimentation, bad time for plants used to zone 7.

I live on the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee. (zone 6-7) This is an area of limestone karst topography with rock outcroppings and sinkholes. (To paint the picture, they sometimes have trouble running water lines in my area, or plowing, due to giant rocks under the sometimes thin soil.)
Anyway, In the middle of my back garden is an area of solid rock about 10 x 12 ft (and probably infinitely deep) There is about 4 inches of soil over the top.
I am thinking of shoveling off the soil and building a 4 x 8 ft cold frame in the middle of this rock, refilling it with good soil, for cold weather seedlings. It would not collect water on top, because it is actually slightly domed shaped, and slightly above grade. I was thinking that the thermal mass would collect the sun's heat and release it at night. However, after this recent deep freeze, and we haven't really had a lot of sun, and now I am wondering if the rock would just be colder than the surrounding soil? The soil froze about 6 inches deep, which is really unusual for here. We had no snow, so I could not tell which would have thawed quickest. This may be a dumb question, but my mind is fuzzy, does the mass of the rock cool off quicker than the mass of the soil? And would it hold the cold longer?