beans yesterday, beans tomorrow

Well, my guess was correct. 

The beansalad days are indeed over for the year, though lingering vines are still holding on to their beans.

These yellow Romano-type beans, which I don't intend to plant again, are being picked as soon as they start to feel papery, and brought in for further drying, and shelling. Maybe they'll be nice in a soup this Winter.

The last few French filet beans, yellow and green, are being left to dry for seed. They are my long-time favorites but some years it has been impossible to find seeds for the varieties I prefer. Letting them dry on the vine has always been tricky due to Autumn rains, and of course this year, all bets are off regarding weather. Maybe we'll have a very dry Autumn. Who knows? It's raining right now. Anyway, I'll leave them on the vine as long as possible, and hope they don't rot.

When I planted beans this year, the newly-purchased seed looked disappointing, so I dug into my seed box and planted lots of saved bean seed from previous years as well. Thank goodness I planted heavily. What with the weather - apologies if you are sick of hearing about the weather - and my sorry excuse for a trellis, I consider myself very lucky indeed to have harvested enough beans for many bowls of beansalad. Which was just about the only recognizable feature of "Summer" in 2023.

Next year, though? I'm already working on it.

Vincent 1885

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