I harvested these beans in mid-August when the plants were drooping over from too much rain. I couldn't be bothered to stake them up (they are all bush beans) so harvested them a bit early. But better than having them rot in the ground as happened the previous year with my Borlotti bean crop. I left these for a couple of weeks to dry and eventually got around to shelling them all and finally here are the results.
From left to right in the main photo: Vermont Cranberry, Black Turtle, Jacob's Cattle and Canadian Wild Goose. Other than the Black Turtle, the beans were all purchased from Heritage Harvest Seed.
I haven't tried any of those yet, but a portion of the black beans (pretty much my favourite food) went into these stuffed peppers along with some of my recently (last week, in fact) harvested sweet potatoes. SO GOOD!
The only real harvests this week were a handful of Albion Hybrid parsnips (just to check them out, no rush):
The carrots were found while getting a raised bed ready for the garlic that I planted this weekend. NOTE TO SELF: garlic planted alphabetically West to East: Gem Purple Stripe, German White Rocambole, Hungarian Rocambole, Leningrad Porcelain, Music Porcelain.
And a few more peppers from the greenhouse (two each of Gypsy, King of the North, Hungarian Hot Wax):
The green tomatoes (Chocolate Cherry) that I picked before the frost were layered in newspapers with the few ripe ones available. They have since been dehydrated and stored in the freezer.
This post will be submitted to the Harvest Monday collection hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres. Please stop on by his site to see what other gardeners are doing this week!
You have such creative use of sweet potato, never thought of combining it with dried beans, must give this a try soon.
ReplyDeleteMmm, I've always loved sweet potato and black beans together (enchiladas, stuffed peppers, chili). A great combo!
DeleteYour dried beans are so pretty in the jars! The sweet potatoes and black bean stuffed peppers do sound good. I have a recipe for 'burgers' using that combo, and I need to try it sometime. And I like your idea of using it in enchiladas, which are one of my favorite foods!
ReplyDeleteA burger sounds like a great idea too, thanks Dave!
DeleteThe deep red color of those King of the North peppers is attractive. And stuffing peppers with beans and sweet potato is a great idea I may try.
ReplyDeleteEarlier in the season (and just anxious for my first peppers) I picked the King of the North too early. Now that I have a glut, I can wait longer and it really does turn a beautiful red.
DeleteLove the beans. I'd never heard of "Canadian Wild Goose" before. I, too, have a fondness for black beans.
ReplyDeleteYes, Canadian Wild Goose was new to me as well. It had a pretty good yield.
DeleteLovely beans, you have a nice variety of colors. I seem to grow a lot of white beans, various sizes, but a lot of white! But I did grow some beautiful Black Cocos this year too. Black bean and sweet potato enchiladas sound great, but I'm like you, black bean and sweet potato anything sounds great. Those are some great looking parsnips, nice and fat (for a parsnip) and smooth.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I did pick some nice looking parsnips as my tester though there were some bigger ones that need to come out soon as well.
DeleteYou have a lovely bean harvest- so colorful! I love the combination of black beans and sweet potatoes. It's a common combination for me in the winter. I also need to shell dried beans that have been sitting in the garage for months.
ReplyDeleteMine were in baskets right in my living room staring me down until I finally shelled them. Had they been in my garage, I might still have them waiting!
DeleteWonderful harvests - I love the colourful beans and, as others have said, black beans are a favourite around here too. Even though growing dried beans doesn't seem to yield a lot, once you soak and cook them, a little goes a long way. And those parsnips look great - still haven't pulled mine up...not that there is a lot to pull as only 2 germinated!
ReplyDeleteYes, it doesn't seem like a lot of yield, but I can get an awful lot of dishes out of what is there. Oh, a shame about your parsnips not germinating well!
DeleteI wonder if your chocolate cherry tomatoes he is the same as our Sunchocola but under a different name they look very similar. We don't usually harvest our parsnips until we have had a frost. I'm not expecting them to be as good looking as yours though.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely similar, as I thought myself when I saw the picture on your blog (I hadn't seen them elsewhere!).
DeleteSusie we grow chocolate cherries too and love their flavour! And grow beans for drying as well. Have you tried Greek Gigantes? They are huge white beans with a lovely texture and good flavour
ReplyDeleteKathy
Kathy, you're another gardener with chocolate cherries! I don't see them often, but they are tasty! I have heard of the Gigantes but have not YET tried them. :)
DeleteYour toms look beautiful laid out on the dehydrator, bet they'll taste lovely. The parsnips are brilliant...nice and clean with no canker. Mine all got eaten by slugs as tiny seedlings just after germinating, and a second sowing failed, so no parsnips for us this year.
ReplyDeleteHehe, I'm just picturing you seeing those beans every day in the living room....it feels good to get those kind of jobs out the way...I have many similar to do myself!