When you plant beans, it’s kinda like zucchini…you get overloaded with tons of them and it’s a bit hard to deal with the amount that are ready to harvest at one time.
But, the nice thing is, when you start to get sick of one kind, another variety is ready to eat.
Yesterday, I picked another handful of flat beans (they are what we, Italians, love to cook with tomatoes or with pasta or with a vinaigrette as a salad, etc) which I will use today for lunch. But look below at what will be ready in the next few weeks!
But, the nice thing is, when you start to get sick of one kind, another variety is ready to eat.
Yesterday, I picked another handful of flat beans (they are what we, Italians, love to cook with tomatoes or with pasta or with a vinaigrette as a salad, etc) which I will use today for lunch. But look below at what will be ready in the next few weeks!
Remember these beans that I planted on the outside of my garden? I did it last year because my dad gave me a few beans to throw in the ground (I told him that I only wanted to plant edible things in this garden but I wanted something that would climb and be pretty at the same time). They made the prettiest red flowers in July which meant I got a large amount of beans that I shelled, froze and used in soup all winter long. So, why stop a good thing, right? This is what came up this year.
This is what the beans look like when they are opened too soon. They seem as though they are ready (they are big and you can see that the bean inside is large enough to shell)…the outside is green but the beans inside are yellow…fine to eat but not quite there yet (too starchy when cooked).
These ones look good inside but you can see that the shell (pod) is wrinkled…it was harder to open so the beans inside, although edible, will take a really long time to boil in order to make them soft enough
These ones are perfect….the shell is still moist and the beans are a bright purple! Not an easy job being a bean picker, huh?
In a couple of weeks, I will show you what to do with these awesome beans!
Look at what else mid September brings:
In a couple of weeks, I will show you what to do with these awesome beans!
Look at what else mid September brings:
Lots of tomatoes (still) and another handful of eggplant (my household is sick of ratatouille so I will have to think of something else to do with these!)
A handful of grapes…although my grape harvest this year wasn’t very good (maybe because of that worm infestation I had earlier) but it’s enough for me to have a treat everyday!
My transplanted herbs are doing great (sage, thyme, mint and lemon balm that I moved from another area as well as purple basil and curly parsley that I put in this year)
Apple trees that are bursting with apples! They have never been sprayed (and I’m learning that it is virtually impossible to have pretty apples without spraying)…I will take whatever I get and not spray…it will make me feel so much better (I also can’t imagine if every single one of these apples was usable…I just can’t keep up with all of this produce!!)
I pulled the rest of my onions to be cleaned and stored in the cellar!
Still, a handful of raspberries everyday…a nice treat that reminds me how nice it is to plant something once (a couple of raspberry plants that were on the sale table at the local nursery a few years back) and reap the rewards every year without hardly any work!
and just when I thought strawberry season was over…
