Well, I guess the growing season is over. When we woke up this morning, there was ice on the fishpond and the castor bean plant that towers over it looked pretty sad: its leaves hanging like rags from drooping stems. It was pretty cold last night, cold enough for the leaves to crunch underfoot, cold enough for all things to be white with frost.
Mentally, of course, I haven't quite embraced the new season. I need to do a review of the veg garden to see what will work better for us next year. The short answer is This was the Year of Beans. (My first year was the Year of Crucifers.) Next year? Who knows. I always seem to run out of onions, potatoes and carrots, so maybe it will be a year of underground surprises.
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I was also in denial until the other morning when the temperatures was 20 degrees. That finished off pretty much everything.
14˚ this morning. Fall is *so* over.
What kind of beans? Dry or green?
Both kinds, and some that were both...
I experimented with some "old" types of dried beans. About 95% of the stuff I get is both organic and heirloom, so I have lots of tried-and-true kinds like Jacob's Cattle and Cherokee Trail of Tears. I am actually pretty fond of Italian-type green beans, and have loads of them, too. Flageolets and cowpeas and runners and of course Kentucky Wonder (pole and bush). I admit I am a bit of a succession-planter, so bush beans work well in my crop rotation plan. "No earth left bare," is my motto.
Of course, I have loads hung up and drying out in paper bags now in the shed. Gardening and harvesting are one thing, picking dried bean from dried husk entirely another.
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