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

~~~~~

saturday review

Possibly the final beansalad of 2023:

With crumbled sharp cheddar garnish.

The most recent example of my lifelong gastronomical experiment loosely titled:

Seriously, what would NOT be improved by adding either cheese or maple syrup?

And you may be thinking, "why not both?" to which I reply, "yes, sometimes!"

The sharp cheddar crumbles certainly enhanced my customary salad of yellow and green filet beans, garbanzo beans, and white kidney beans.

By the way, does anyone have a recommendation for cooking dry kidney beans instead of buying canned? I tried cooking dry red kidney beans in a kettle following the advice on the packet. It took ages - and I had to stay nearby to frequently stir the pot and check the texture of the beans - and I think I still managed to undercook them. Next time should I try pressure cooking?

The grapes have been very productive this year, and I've enjoyed walking under the vines even in the rain.

Earlier this week I went down to the terrace garden with a grocery sack and picked grapes between rainstorms. Of all the tasks I've managed to sprint through between rainstorms this "summer," picking those grapes was my favorite.

To me, grapes are like coffee: the aroma is arguably the best part. Have you ever discovered the presence of wild grapes by the intoxicating aroma? One of those experiences that has probably been providing thrills for humans for as long as there have been humans and grapes in the same ecosystem.

My kitchen smelled wonderful for a while. With a big kettle of grapes simmering on the stove every time I came in from outdoors, it made the rest of the situation in my house seem less overwhelming. Or at least easier to ignore. And now I've got a tub of juice in the chest freezer, and a jar in the fridge that I'll be sipping like wine.

We've just had two days of simply lovely weather - not too hot, not too muggy, not too buggy...not raining. And between the usual round of chores, instead of tackling a few of the extras that have piled up with the wet weather, I spent part of each afternoon just lounging around outside with a sketchbook, keeping an eye on the animals while they kept an eye on me. It was glorious.

~~~~~

lightening the mood

First of all, thanks for all the supportive words on the rain/hay/rain situation. As I mentioned, I've been transitioning the goats' diet -  much more quickly than I would have liked - into soaked timothy/alfalfa pellets and chaffhaye, which is a bagged and semi-fermented alfalfa. I've fed it before, many years ago, but had a mixed experience with quality and availability, which I hope will not be the case this time. Today my order of 12 more 50-pound sacks of Chaffhaye came in, so no one is going to starve here for at least the next couple of weeks.

In other news, the beans are producing abundantly! Some of the vines were badly damaged in the recent deadfall, but I'm still going down to the terrace garden with a little basket every second or third day, to  pick the next batch of beans for salad.

By the way, my "three bean" salads are generally "4-plus beans" salad, which became shortened in my mind to "beans salad" and now, "beansalad." It's on the menu every day, with little modifications to keep things interesting. I've tried adding white kidney beans, and starting with dry red kidney beans instead of using canned. The garden provides varying percentages of green filet beans, yellow filet beans, and yellow romano-type beans. I don't think the "sauce" is ever the same twice: different oils, different vinegars, different ratios. Luckily, it's been tasty every time.

Which reminds me...is this a good time to share a couple of kitcheny tips?

Here's the first. The best idea I've ever heard - honestly it's the only one I've ever heard, but it's a good one - for using strawberry caps: making strawberry-infused vinegar. This came from Nancy Birtwhistle, one of the early Great British Bake-off champions who has since written books on "green cleaning" and gardening. Her website has loads of recipes on it as well.

Anyway, she recommends filling a jar with strawberry caps, then adding plain vinegar and soaking. I don't recall how long she advised, but I just stuffed a jar with strawberry caps, filled it to the brim with vinegar, and watched it get red then redder for a couple of days before straining it into a smaller jar. Isn't it pretty?

This jar was full to start with.
Strawberry vinegar is very nice.

It smells lovely and has a refreshing taste, and is a subtle twist on the vinegar component of beansalad. Plus it's very satisfying to have something to do with the strawberry caps! 

Another tip: garbanzo bean skins. Do you use canned chick peas? I do. Do you remove the skins? I do. It's so easy that it's fun. It involves using a rice-washing bowl and plenty of water, rubbing the beans with your fingers and floating the skins away. It takes about one minute for a can of garbanzos.

This method came from Refika's Kitchen on YouTube. I've followed Refika for a few years now, and have been entertained, educated, and, most importantly, inspired to be a bit more adventurous in my attitude to preparing food.

Back to the beans. I'll try linking to a YT video which should open in another window, starting right here at the chick pea technique. Removing the skins only takes a minute, but I couldn't figure out how to make a short clip, so you'll have to either exit the video after a minute or learn how to make Turkish hummus.

It's really nice not to have all this in the beansalad:

Well this is shaping up to be a bit of a random post, isn't it? I'm going to round it out by linking to an article the Guardian published a few days ago.

I've written about the International Space Station before, and since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I've often wondered what's going on inside the ISS and in the program control rooms of every country involved. This article by Stephen Walker takes a pretty good crack at the question.

A big chore day tomorrow, so I'm going to do my Daily Markmaking and go to sleep. In case I haven't said it lately, thanks for visiting and especially for taking the time to leave comments - I really appreciate the contact.

~~~~~

summer

I am so happy that the struggling bean plants are producing beans!

The first big bowl of beans salad lasted about 36 hours, which included one breakfast and one midnight snack. I've already picked another batch for the second bowl. This may not be a highly productive year for beans, but I'm grateful for every one. It doesn't feel like Summer until there's a bowl of beans salad in the fridge

In other gardening news, my Occasional Helper was here this morning and we worked in the terrace garden, leveling another section about six feet square using muck from the South Paddock and old hay bedding from the Peace Pavilion. And I carefully cleared away - using my pocket knife, the smallest machete in the world - all the other plants that have been growing around three little blueberry bushes purchased last year. They are still tiny bushes, but they managed to hang on through Winter and "Spring" and are really starting to grow.

I keep yawning so wide my eyes are watering - I could fall asleep at 4 in the afternoon! But I'm going to have to shake off this lethargy and try to soak Mallow's sore hoof. Mallow is unlikely to consider this is a great idea, and he's a chunky fellow with a lot of opinions, so it may not go well. Must try though, as he's been favoring a hoof for several days and two treatments with my usual hoof medications haven't helped. On to Plan C.

~~~~~

salad days

Bean flowers:

Bean fruit:

Bean salad!

I picked the first French filet beans a few days ago,

immediately made a huge bowl of three-bean salad,

and have been eating it twice daily ever since.

You'd think I'd be getting tired of it by now, but no.

I'm just trying not to run out before I can make the next batch.

Last night I had intended to go down to the garden after chores

and fill another basket with beans:

one bean for each goat, all the rest for me.

But just as I was collecting empty grain pans and distributing peanuts,

thunder began to roll and lightening flashed quite nearby.

So I hastened to cover the hay and get Piper, Moxie and Della into the house.

No bean-picking last night.

Maybe tonight though.

Oh I think so.

Yes.

Three-bean salad: breakfast of champions!

~~~~~

saturday snaps

Look - it's sunshine!

The air is not grey!

Colors are rich and deep again!

The rain actually stopped Thursday, but the ground was saturated - every footstep left a deep print in mud. Although I'd optimistically planned to plant something - anything! finally! - that day, it was still far too wet.

Even when all the vegetation is dripping wet, Moxie and Della choose to come outside with me. Actually, they aren't really coming "with" me; they would be happy to be running in and out at will, all day long. But I am very concerned about hawks, so if the cats are outside, Piper or I must be out there too. And since Piper takes one good look around and then heads for her secret spot under the porch, her role as hawk-deterrent is negligible. So that just leaves me.

Here they are, my little jungle cats:

Fortunately, yesterday was again not-raining, and the soil had begun to dry a bit. I was finally able to plant two rows of pole beans. Hallelujah!

It looks like one row in this picture, but there is a little aisle between the two sections. The end of the second row is where you see the yellow bucket, which is full of rocks.

All that lush greenery between the garden rows looks pretty good to the goats, who poke their noses through the fence when I'm working. Every time I straighten up, I pull handfuls of greens to share out.

The goats tend to keep moving, though. Rain or shine, the mosquitoes are absolutely horrendous. Despite frequent applications of non-toxic repellent sprays, the goats are covered in itchy bites and so am I. LeShodu, who hates both the bugs and the sprays, spends more time in the barns and less time out browsing than some of the other goats. So today when I came up from the garden, I brought LeShodu a whole hatful of fresh alfalfa, picked seconds before, just for her.

It's the little things, isn't it, Shodu?

~~~

Dear readers, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, and if you are hiding from mosquitoes or anything else, I hope someone will bring you a hatful of fresh alfalfa.
Or, you know, something equivalent.

~~~~~

bye july

Intermittent light rain today!
I am so grateful. Heat and humidity have been almost relentless since May, and it's been dry, dry, dry.
So dry that in the week before July 4th, I called the police four times to report that thoughtless people (a bit of serious editing there, readers) were repeatedly setting off illegal fireworks near my place. Curmudgeon? Maybe. But the forest didn't burn and my barns are intact.

Speaking of barns, a couple of weeks ago I went out before dawn - the best time to do "extra" chores in this weather - to set up a big fan in the goat barn. The fan is part of a large haul of goodies bought at a farm sale last Autumn. It had been stored safely out of goats' reach in the little stilt barn, hanging from two nails in a rafter. Retrieving it meant teetering on a stepstool while keeping one eye on LeShodu, Betula and Acer - the three biggest goats in the herd - who had been sleeping in the stilt barn til I showed up to entertain them. Each was capable of bumping me off that stool with a gentle "whatcha doin'?" nose-nudge.

Do you find it a bit unnerving when you need all your strength to wrestle with something that's over your head? That big box in the loft, that suitcase jammed onto a closet shelf? It's like a dog chasing a car: when you finally get hold of that thing, will you really be able to control it?

I managed to hang onto the fan and get off the stool without mishap, mostly because even in the relative "cool" before sun-up, the goats were too lethargic to help. This endlessly muggy weather makes the goats either lethargic or cranky. Same here, goats, same here. I move even more slowly than usual, if you can imagine it. And there's been a lot more swearing when things don't go smoothly. (Please don't imagine that second part.)

In the big barn, I attached a piece of stock panel at an angle across one stall to keep the goats away from the fan, then opened the west door of the barn. Campion was the first to investigate:

Followed by Dara and Vinca. By the way, these are both goatcam shots. I kept an eye on things from the house, to be sure my barrier was working. As soon as I was out of the barn, Campion tried to tear the stock panel down, but was unsuccessful. This was a big victory for me; sometimes it takes two or three tries to Campion-proof something. He is tenacious!

The fan isn't on all the time, but when the air is hot and thick and humid, it certainly helps to keep a little air moving through the barn. And I hope it's helping keep the biting flies out as well.

~~~

So far this summer, there have been only three days when the gardens have not needed watering. There are hoses set up to reach the big gardens but every evening after regular chores I've been carrying buckets of water to a few small garden areas beyond reach of the hoses. A couple of days ago I broke down and bought one more hundred-foot section. (After extensive research last year, I invested in several sections of 100% rubber hose. And I do mean "invested;" these hoses will be specifically mentioned in my Will.) Money well spent. What a thrill to have that hose carrying the water for me! Simple tools often provide miraculous results.

Here's another miraculous thing: the vegetable plants are beginning to produce. 

French filet pole beans

In the past ten days I have appreciated the first pole beans, summer squash, and cucumber. The winter squash plants are now climbing to the top of the six-foot fence, and at the other end of the spectrum, the tiny okra plants are putting out new leaves. I may not have the abundant harvest I had hoped to put by for Winter, but I am very grateful to have fresh, organic vegetables right now.

Ronde de Nice squash

And tonight I think I can skip watering the gardens.

~~~

Piper visited the doggy spa last week, where she is very popular and always has a swell time. Usually she has a professional bath in the Spring and Autumn, but this was an extra trip; the equivalent of buying new jimjams for a hospital stay.

Piper's doctor felt a couple of molars were giving her trouble and should probably be removed. To be honest, I was hesitant; Piper wasn't off her grub at all and showed no signs of discomfort. And as boisterous as Piper is  - and as much as I am in total denial about this - she is not a youngster. Anesthesia always carries a risk.

But I did the responsible thing: trusted my vet and scheduled dental surgery this past Wednesday. It was two hours of surgery in the morning, and poor Pip was feeling peculiar and a bit wobbly when I brought her home late that afternoon. She is feeling much more herself now, but we're still taking things more quietly than usual. I'm hoping we'll be back out for little strolls in the woods this week.

typical provisions for Adventures with Piper

~~~

What are you planning for the coming week?

Can you believe it will be August?

~~~~~

book giveaway and random beans

Just a quick note to announce

the winner of the crockpot cookbook giveaway, as promised:

Congratulations to Magpie's Mumblings!

Drop me an email with your mailing address,

and your book will soon be on its way.

I hope you will enjoy it,

and find some new favorite crockpot recipes.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment and a cooking tip!

One of my favorite things about blogging is

the way ideas are shared.

~~~

And now I'm falling asleep,

but it just doesn't feel right to put up a post without

at least one image, so...

here are some #drawingAugust beans:

Good night :)

~~~~~

wordless wednesday

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pattypan reprise

One late little pattypan squash recently appeared, glowing like a beacon amidst the thinning foliage of the fading squash plants. I waited for a few days, but with plant-eating bugs still attacking the neighboring cabbage and cauliflower and potato plants, it seemed risky to delay harvesting the little squash any longer.

And I picked a few beans and lemon cucumbers, too.

This picture really shows why they are called "greasy beans"!

A few weeks ago I decided to let the last few pole beans dry on the vine, then gather them for for shelling as the last part of the experiment. But to my surprise, the plants continued to produce, yielding more beans at the end of the season than they did earlier. Maybe I should check the packet and my planting notes.

I don't know if these little lemon cucumbers are ripe, but I was told to pick them before they turn yellow. And they do smell lovely! So we'll see.

Did you have a garden this year? Are you still harvesting vegetables, or have you already put the garden to bed for winter?

And who is just planting their gardens, in the southern hemisphere or parts more tropical than Massachusetts? Links to your bloggy garden pictures very welcome  :)

~~~~~

oh, beans!

Yesterday I picked the first of the beans.

Yay!!!

These are the heirloom pole beans from Sow True Seed, kindly sent to me by Tipper at Blind Pig and the Acorn as part of a planting project. I wrote about it here.

Since this was an experiment, I did 3 small plantings, in 2 locations, working around a stretch of very wet weather. First, on 31 May, I planted a short row of ten beans by goat barn. These seeds were presoaked to give them a headstart on germinating.

In only four days, the cotyledons began to appear. It was tremendously exciting! Really, does this sight ever get old?

The fragments of clean, dried eggshells are intended to deter nibbling animals like mice from marching through the garden in search of the salad bar. Apparently something took a nibble out of the one below anyway, but the plant rose above it!

All ten beans germinated, gradually, over a ten-day period. Every morning I went out and counted the beans.

Ha! I became a bean-counter.
Where's my calculator?
Where's my pocket protector? 

This picture was taken 30 June. The baling-twine trellis was an experiment. You may have noticed, most things here are experiments.

A second row of 10 presoaked beans went in along a 6' fence in a new (sunny!) garden spot.

That sun-blocking greenery on the other side of the fence became part of the goats' menu. The goats are excellent gardening helpers, as long as they are on the proper side of the fence.*

After 9 days, these bean plants began popping up piecemeal over several days, and on the 14th of June, I planted the remaining 20+ seeds along the same fence. These last seeds were not soaked first. To my astonishment, eight days later, they all came up simultaneously. One morning there was a perfect row of beans greeting the sun, where the day before there had been only a line pressed into the ground.

Note to self: skip the presoaking next year!

Another surprise was the luxuriant growth of the planting by the goat barn (you can see the roof in the background), in an area with patchy light:

...compared to the sparse growth of the planting along the fence, in an area chosen because it gets so much sun:

So I have learned a couple of things about how and where to plant my pole beans next year.

Meanwhile, into the kitchen with the first beans!

I wouldn't call them "stringless" exactly...

but I've never minded stringing beans, so maybe I'm not quite as lazy as the "lazy wife" these beans were named for!

But...had they grown too big? Would they be tough?

Steamed them whole...

to accompany a little leftover roast chicken.

Delicious beans!
Meaty, yet tender.
Lovely flavor.

In fact, it's a good thing I took a picture before I started eating - see the steam on the fork? - because otherwise it would have been too late and this would have been a picture of...just chicken.

Fingers crossed for a long, late harvest period. It would be very nice to put up a few packets of these tasty beans for midwinter treats, but it seems more likely every bean will be eaten up long before it can see the inside of a freezer or jar.

I'm already planning where to plant more next year.

Thanks, Tipper! And thanks, Sow True Seeds!
~~~

*The day I spent a couple of hours planting onion sets, one of the goats slipped into the garden as I was going out the gate. The goat was in and out of the garden in roughly 12 seconds, but she left a row of deep sharp hoofprints straight down the new row of onions. Little monkey.

~~~~~

wordless wednesday

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