Journal 12-04-16

I am embarassed by the relatively meager looking size of the harvest, but in my defense, like half the early crop got swept into a slow cooker (and I have no idea what was in it! I think a lot of Yoeme Purple. There were words.) and I sacrificed a load of Trail of Tears and Tarahumara Red to chili. But a couple just plain did not perform--I'm done trying to make the "ojo" types work. Whatever they want, it's not what I've got here. And the Aztec Cave Beans are very pretty and don't hold a candle to Mother Stallard in terms of production and flavor, so they're out.

On the other hand, I just went and looked up standard yields for dry beans, and a lot of them average something like 1.5-3 lbs per 25 foot row, and even 25 plants per pound of beans. So given that I have maybe 25 feet of beans TOTAL, and that heavily intercropped with tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and squash, the fact I managed at least three or four pounds worth is not too embarassing at all.

Next year, I'm looking at Trail of Tears, Mother Stallard, O'odham Pink, Tarahumara Red, Rattlesnake Pole and probably Yoeme Purple. We'll give it a year or two and see how those fare...

19 comments — :

( 19 comments — Leave a comment )

franklanguage

2016-12-05 01:48 am (UTC)

No fava beans?

sauergeek

2016-12-06 04:50 am (UTC)

There'd have to be a Chianti involved somehow. And probably someone's liver, though maybe the one Skull Ridges contributed would qualify.

siglinde99

2016-12-05 02:12 am (UTC)

They look lovely and I'm impressed with what you managed to grow.

tamena

2016-12-05 03:28 am (UTC)

eventually I would like to meet up with you somewhere if possible, with the promise of space in a greenhouse once we get settled in a home here in Raleigh =)
I have a question for you please - do you know of any local silver smiths? I have a turquoise pendant I want to have repaired and don't know who to turn to

and good job on the beans =) I can not wait to start growing stuff here in NC!

ursulav

2016-12-05 05:53 am (UTC)

Oh, shoot, I used to! Gretchen...something. Lots of tattoos. That's not as helpful as it could be...ah...crud. If you have Twitter, ping @ana_ng -- she's a friend of mine and knew a lot more people in the jewelry world than I do!

2016-12-05 03:13 pm (UTC)

awesome thank you Ma'am!

mel_redcap

2016-12-05 06:53 am (UTC)

I think you can actually be pretty proud of accomplishing that harvest, and extra proud for actually drying them and keeping track of how well different types did!

bean harvest

Lynn Title

2016-12-05 07:40 am (UTC)

Rattlesnake pole beans are our best performer here in the DC area, and deal well with the partial sun that's the best I can offer, but we eat them as green beans. Prolific short-season producer, so planted in April we get at least two meals a week from 4th of July to frost. We also grow purple Italian beans and Kentucky Wonders, both as poles (bush beans don't do near as well for us). Interested to try Mother Stallard; are those good green?

Lynn Title

mayanas

2016-12-05 10:45 am (UTC)

I feel like we had bean plants all over the yard but we ended up with one measly jar. Next year there really WILL be beans all over the yard. I plan to put them in everywhere. Maybe we'll even end up with two jars. (One can hope!)

jaxomsride

2016-12-05 12:54 pm (UTC)

That does not look too measly a haul for a garden crop, especially as you have already eaten some of this year's harvest.. Love the different colours of the beans.

evcelt

2016-12-05 07:13 pm (UTC)

Is that the Guardian Bean Serpent in the background?

agoodwinsmith

2016-12-05 08:41 pm (UTC)

That picture of home-grown home-dried beans make me very happy - and I'm not sure precisely why. Probably because fall always makes me happy because it is all about being ready to survive the tough times. I guess the picture proves optimism. There may be a cheezie poof as figurehead in the strongest country in the world, but people are still growing beans and preparing to plant them again, therefore: happy.

Edited at 2016-12-05 08:42 pm (UTC)

Reco'd bean recipes?

asathena

2016-12-05 09:06 pm (UTC)

Besides chili, does anyone have any recommended bean recipes? I want to get more legumes in our system (maybe even try dried beans, *gasp* #citydweller) but I don't know where to start.

Re: Reco'd bean recipes?

2016-12-06 02:11 am (UTC)

Hummus. You can hummus a lot of beans, and the tahini can be replaced with peanut butter or almond butter if you want to be a mad experimenter. My personal feeling, though, is that the lemon juice is essential, no matter what else you do.

Or soup. Split peas, when pureed, make a luscious creamy soup. Probably a lot of beans with skin will not puree so beautifully - but think of the fun you can have experimenting. :)

2016-12-06 05:04 am (UTC)

Baked beans. Chili (ignore the people who say that there are no beans in chili). Bean stews work surprisingly well, especially if you add savory and -- oddly enough -- nutmeg. Red beans and rice, which, despite its name, is a porkfest. (A yummy, yummy porkfest.) There are umpteen bean soups as well.

3rdragon

2016-12-07 01:49 am (UTC)

If you can be organized enough to plan ahead, I strongly recommend dried beans. They weigh a gazillion times less than canned beans, and are much less work to haul home from the grocery store, so I find them well-adapted to a #citydweller lifestyle. (Fun fact: I got my now-roommate hooked on dried beans when the grocery store was a 3-mile round trip with inconvenient buses.) I subscribe to the low-cooking method: I'll dump beans and water in a big pan a day-and-a-half or two in advance, let it sit for eight hours or overnight. Then I'll bring it to a boil and boil for five-ish minutes once an hour (or twice a day, depending on how much I'm around) until I think they're done. If the beans are fresh, I may only cook the beans twice.

I use beans as a substitute for/in conjunction with meat in many tex-mex recipes: tacos, enchiladas, burritos, etc. Beans pair particularly well with squash.

There are a lot of tasty beans and rice recipes out there -- try to get one suited to approximately the kind of beans you have, ideally a recipe that originally came from someone connected to south or central America.

I will add beans to most any soup to provide extra bulk. Beans are good protein for salads.

Chickpeas! Chickpeas are really good in salads, in tomato-based middle-eastern dishes, soups, in curries (anything with "chana" or "channa" in the name usually involves chickpeas).

If you're a cookbook person, flip to the index and look under "beans" for inspiration. Especially a vegan or vegetarian cookbook.