What did you do in the garden today?

[IamRainey]

Store bought preserves are good, but really don't have that burst of freshness you get with homemade product.

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Sooo right! And they're so limited. When you make your own you can have so much more variety. When I lived on the East Coast I used to make a Concord Grape Conserve that had raisins and ground nuts in it along with the fruit. It was wonderful but we don't get Concord grapes out here in LA. Still, I like to experiment with adding small bits of dried fruit, nuts and liqueurs. The combinations can get very interesting. In any case they're much more complex flavors.

And Christine Ferber, a French woman famous for her preserves, has recipes for amazing things like Chocolate Banana Jam. She also has recipes that you can use with available fruit all year long. What's especially great about her technique is that she uses a 2-day process that macerates the fruit for a day before the heat is applied. As a result the fruit is subjected for heat for a shorter period and you get a much fresher flavor.

 

[IamRainey]

My grandfather was a great backyard farmer. I think the miniature cucumbers and carrots he gave me from his garden when we visited over summer vacation were what I was after when I started gardening when we got our first backyard.

He lived in Maine where the growing season was short but they needed to eat from it all year round. So he grew dry beans. Every year he and my great aunt and great grandmother would discuss which made the best baked beans and needed to be set aside for planting the following year.

My great aunt also canned so they had vegetables and pickles to get them through the year. And that's why I've been canning since the 60s. I still fresh pack my tomatoes. I know the FDA would be horrified but it never killed anyone in my family so I don't guess it's gonna kill me after all these generations. So I do it.

Anywa-a-a-ay, my husband and I enjoy a good pot of baked beans but not as the kind of staple it was in my great grandmother's house. So what do you do with dried beans? I've never grown them. And is there a variety you prefer? What are the qualities you look for in a dry bean? Do they grow the same way as a pole bean or a bush bean? Do they come in pole and bush varieties? Wish I could remember them in my grandfather's garden but it was those tiny, tiny cukes and carrots that I was mesmerized by.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

My grandfather was a great backyard farmer. I think the miniature cucumbers and carrots he gave me from his garden when we visited over summer vacation were what I was after when I started gardening when we got our first backyard.

He lived in Maine where the growing season was short but they needed to eat from it all year round. So he grew dry beans. Every year he and my great aunt and great grandmother would discuss which made the best baked beans and needed to be set aside for planting the following year.

My great aunt also canned so they had vegetables and pickles to get them through the year. And that's why I've been canning since the 60s. I still fresh pack my tomatoes. I know the FDA would be horrified but it never killed anyone in my family so I don't guess it's gonna kill me after all these generations. So I do it.

Anywa-a-a-ay, my husband and I enjoy a good pot of baked beans but not as the kind of staple it was in my great grandmother's house. So what do you do with dried beans? I've never grown them. And is there a variety you prefer? What are the qualities you look for in a dry bean? Do they grow the same way as a pole bean or a bush bean? Do they come in pole and bush varieties? Wish I could remember them in my grandfather's garden but it was those tiny, tiny cukes and carrots that I was mesmerized by.

I think @Acre4Me can help you better than I can. She grows a wide variety of beans. I only grow green beans. I don’t have the space to grow a lot of different varieties of beans. As for what do I do with dried beans - I cook them and use them many ways. I use lentils as well, although they are not beans but legumes. I haven’t made baked beans in a couple of years. They are tasty but a little heavy in calories. Lentils I use mostly for Indian curries.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Did second round of dry bean harvest, and now I have approx 4Cups of dried beans. There are more pods on the plants not quite dry enough to harvest, and they are flowering again! I planted a single 9 ft row of each of 3 kinds of bush beans for drying, so am happy with the outcome!

The pole beans are flowering like crazy, and the earliest flowers have decent sized pods on them. These are also for drying.

Finally, more peppers are ripe! We planted 12 varieties hoping to find at least 2-3 that we liked. There is one, so far, that we would plant again, but have only tried peppers from 4-5 of the plants.

Melons looking good. One was turning orange, so I touched it to roll it slightly to see the side color, and it popped off the vine! Looks like it needs a few days of counter ripening.

Picked some soybeans for the first time. They look plump, so am hoping they are good eating. Boil in salted water for approx 8 min, then pop out of shell into mouth = edamame.

Congrats on the progress of the bean harvest, and you were worried not long ago. My garden is so slow this year compared to last I’m a bit nervous. It’s hard to believe I ordered my stove pellets already, so the growing season is coming to an end soon. Perhaps you can share your “bean” wisdom with @IamRainey I believe your experience with dried beans exceeds mine. I’m still tempted to try growing edamame.

 

[IamRainey]

Well, entirely by chance, I was at my local monthly produce exchange this morning and someone brought in these interesting dried Christmas lima beans.



I used some self-control and limited myself to a modest handful on the first pass around the table. By the time everyone had had a shot at them there were still lots so I took a second handful thinking I'd have some to plant and put some in a soup. When the event was over the bag was still heaping so I got the rest. Now I'll be able to plant, put some in soup and have some more for when I've had a chance to research how else to cook them.

I also got some zucchini-ish squash and a small 8-ball type plus an heirloom green tomato and some lovely African Blue basil that has an intoxicating aroma and a beautiful spikey purple flower that resembles Veronica. An interesting haul and I didn't even go with a plan of collecting anything. I had eggs and nasturtium & squash seedlings to find homes for.

While I was there I also put in a request for eggshells for my girls. They love them far more than oyster shell and I never have enough for them since I give 2/3 of their eggs away. We'll see what I come home with next month.

I haven't been to the exchange in a year since I wasn't growing anything while I was out of commission with my knees. It was lovely to go back again!

 

[Acre4Me]

So what do you do with dried beans? I've never grown them. And is there a variety you prefer? What are the qualities you look for in a dry bean? Do they grow the same way as a pole bean or a bush bean? Do they come in pole and bush varieties?

Beans for drying come in both bush and pole varieties. Since I typically make bean soup with smoked ham hock or smoked pulled pork, the qualities of cooking up plump and that they can be mashed or blended to make a creamy base are important. Usually, once cooked I'll mash some of the beans against side of the pot until the base is thickened, but it is still very chunky with at least half of the beans still whole, and base looks more broth-like/ not so opaque . Sometimes, I take out beans and soup base from the pot and blend till smooth in a blender, leaving majority of beans whole, but base looks much "creamier" that way. Any pork get removed from the ham hock and shredded and returned to the soup pot. Freezes great! My entire family gets excited when I tell them it is bean soup for dinner.

I've had canned "baked Beans", but only had homemade baked beans this year. Kid did a cooking project in 4-H on various regional US dishes, and baked beans was one such dish that needed to be prepared. While good, it was too sweet for my taste, but am guessing that there is a wide range of baked bean dishes found in the NE.

The varieties of beans I'm growing this year are
1. "Good Mother Stallard" - a pole variety. Savory and very creamy and plump when cooked.

2. "Lena Cisco Bird Egg" - bush variety. Similar to the one above.

3. "Calypso" - bush variety. Its been awhile since I've cooked this one, and cant remember particular qualities, but I don't recall it being so plump and creamy in soup, so this will add some additional texture to the soup.

4. "Black Valentine" Bush type. I've never grown it nor eaten it, but grew it bc I wanted to give myself a reason to try some black bean recipes (beyond the quick version of using a can opener).


Word of advice: Don't grow green beans next to the beans for drying. If not labelled well enough, you'll find that you have some dried green beans mixed in with the actual dried beans you wanted....

 

[Acre4Me]

Well, entirely by chance, I was at my local monthly produce exchange this morning and someone brought in these interesting Christmas lima beans.

View attachment 1874122

We grew those one year...mostly for show bc really BIG pods, which are green and then open them up to red and white lima beans! As I recall, they grew upend along the low fence around the garden. I don't recall what we did with them for eating, as we grew them at our first home.

 

[boggart]

From the top my tomatoes look lovely

but from the bottom they look disgusting

Does anyone have an idea of what this may be? These tomatoes in particular where high on the vine far from touching the soil. My cherry tomatoes seem completely unaffected.

 

[IamRainey]

"Black Valentine" Bush type. I've never grown it nor eaten it, but grew it bc I wanted to give myself a reason to try some black bean recipes (beyond the quick version of using a can opener).

We really like black beans. Usually choose them with our Mexican food.

I've got a recipe for a Cuban-type black bean soup that we really love if you want the recipe. It's not authentic as I understand the correct Cuban soup would use red beans but this is delicious. It takes a few days to develop all it's rich flavor but it's passive time spent in the slow cooker. Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

I can also give you a recipe for baked beans that isn't sweet.

Word of advice: Don't grow green beans next to the beans for drying. If not labelled well enough, you'll find that you have some dried green beans mixed in with the actual dried beans you wanted....

Thank you! An excellent tip.

I once grew Summer and Winter squash too close together and came up with some interesting (as in weird) half-breeds. I've also used the male blossoms of various Summer types when variety-correct blossoms were sparse and gotten odd squash that were still soft-skinned but only resembled themselves.

 

[IamRainey]

Does anyone have an idea of what this may be? These tomatoes in particular where high on the vine far from touching the soil. My cherry tomatoes seem completely unaffected.

Sun scald. Those "bottoms" were the end that was pointed out toward the sun when they were on the vine. They'll be perfectly edible if you cut the dried out portion away. They just dehydrated in the assault of the sun before they could develop their flesh.

That's why I don't prune or pinch out anything. I'm willing to believe you can get a higher yield by pinching out "suckers" but, depending on where you're growing, your tomatoes they can really need the shade provided by the leaves.