Beans and Gourds
Although not yet done with our dry shell bean harvest, the remaining variety still has a way to go before being dry enough to pick. A couple of other varieties didn't do so well and of the varieties that did do well, when putting them in jars to store, I had some partial jars. So we took a half dozen partial jars, soaked them in a pot over night and made a ham and bean soup the following day for lunch. Above is a picture of the soaked beans before we started adding the flavorings and ham.
I tried eating some of the various types of beans separately for a taste test of sorts and couldn't really tell much of a difference in flavor. There were subtle texture differences but I'm not sure that is due to the bean variety or just the length of soaking time to get rehydrated fully. All the beans were very meaty and flavorful. When cooked with some ham and some spices, they were downright delightful. After I'm done writing this post, I'm going to have another bowl for today's lunch.
When we were putting in our squash and pumpkins, the girls planted some hills of gourds. They have done quite well and so after picking some of them, we put them in our garden wagon back at our house and have tried selling them on Facebook to friends. The girls are keeping the proceeds for a rainy day. We haven't sold a lot of them but we've sold a few. After we've sold to friends and given some to others as gifts, I will probably just put a sign and a coffee can out there and let others pick them at their leisure and hopefully leave behind some money for the girl's slush fund.
All the squash plants are still mostly green and healthy and with a recent rain after months without, they might hang in there awhile longer. That is good because I'm just finishing up preserving our apple crop for the year and need a break before going into squash preservation mode.
I am most now reminded that my farmers friend had an expression: “You’re out of your gourd.” I had to look it up just now. It basically means, you’re nuts, which I guess is how I always interpreted it. 😀
ReplyDeleteYes, that has always been my interpretation as well. As of now, I am out of gourds and my daughters have $60 to split between themselves.
Delete$60? Wow! That is awesome! Those gourds are really pretty. I can see why people would buy them. Your beans are really pretty too.
DeleteNothing says fall like dried beans and gourds!
DeleteMy mother liked to grow gourds. I seem to remember a lot of the kind with the long necks that you could shake like maracas when they dried out. I would have bought some from your girls. They're fun to use for decoration.
ReplyDeleteThose were my favorites back in the day. We were running out of space and so limited the girls to just two packets so they got a mixture that didn't include the maraca gourds and striped mini pumpkins.
DeleteThose are beautiful! I would buy some of those but I'm too far away. I love beans in soups and chili and am waiting for cooler weather to make some of the latter.
ReplyDeleteWe now have cool mornings with frost not too far to the north of us so it won't be long.
DeleteSuch a refreshing lifestyle you have - far away from the bustle and plastic of a city.
ReplyDeleteWe like it though I know it isn't for everyone.
DeleteThat is a lovely selection, Ed. Good texture and color variety.
ReplyDeleteAnd tasty too!
DeleteWhat great photos! I've never grown gourds before, so I'm impressed with your girls' crop.
ReplyDeleteI've never been able to tell much difference in dried bean flavors either. So I just grow the ones that tolerate our climate best. :)
Gourds do little for sustenance living unless being sold for cash to buy other things.
DeleteSince we are hopefully reducing the size of our garden in the coming years, we will most likely be planting the ones that just produced the best and were easiest to shell.
My impression is that many beans are more different appearance-wise than taste-wise, so thanks for confirming that! They do look colorful all tossed together in the pot. And the gourds are beautiful -- if I lived closer I'd buy some!
ReplyDeleteIt was a fair amount of work keeping all those beans separated and knowing what I know now, I probably would have just mixed them freely.
DeleteYour ham and bean soup sounds wonderful, Ed. I will be right over. Good luck to the gourds.
ReplyDeleteI would like to hear more about your drying method.
ReplyDeleteAssuming you are referring to the beans, we just left them on the plant until they were dried and easy to shuck. I then spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the sun on our deck for a few afternoons to make sure they were completely dried and put them in jars.
DeleteI experimented some by putting some fairly moist beans from green pods on a cookie sheet and after a few hours in the sun, I couldn't tell them from one that was dried out already so doing this over several afternoons (our deck gets sun only in the afternoon), was probably overkill.