[Homestead] beans on steroids.... :-)
Leslie
cayadopi at yahoo.com
Fri Jun 26 21:49:44 EDT 2009
First case of green beans canned.... and judging by how many more will have to be picked more or less on Sunday..... I'll have to can another 2-3 cases this weekened.
First yellow squash harvested,,,,, YUM, I cooked it up for dinner mixed with homegrown zucchini & onions.... what a difference from the grocery store bought...
My sunflowers are over 6' tall now. I can't believe it. The beans have gone so crazy tall, that I've told a few of my friends if they call, and my mom can't find me to hunt me down in the bean rows, as I literally disappear in the foliage when picking. LOL.
OK, peas aren't supposed to grow here........... but guess what I found today... yep, baby peas and pea flowers. Must be the overnight cool air,,,,,,, but the plants are seriously pathetic looking.
And the "internet" lied to me.......... it said 1-2 watermelons per plant.......... would someone please tell that to all my melons (canteloupe, watermelon and honey dew). On one of the watermelons gone crazy.... there are baby watermelons 3-4 to each vine !!! How is that possible? I think I'm going to have to pinch a few off as there wont' be enough room for them to grow. Same with the honey dew melons.
I canned up some of the new potatoes, since it really is hot in the desert, I figure that shelf life over the summer will be a tad tough.
I dug up some of the potatoes in the tires........ I think this has to be done differently. The big taters were down deep in the soil, but only a couple of spuds in the actual tire area.... too hot?? That's what I'm thinking at least for now. The biggest tater was deep in cool soil in a tire stack until a tree.
Every day now something needs to be picked. At least the weeds are close to non-existent after all the weeding (hard work!) early on.
I have lots of ears of corn now, and some stalks have 2 ears - so exciting!
I can't wait for some of the other things to be ready to harvest. So far the best tomato plants have been the Romas. I threw in some old seed (hybrid of who knows what kind just to get rid of it) in one garden and for some reason they are growing well. The Romas are spreading out real thick and taking over a huge area - they are so thick I'm wondering how I'm going to get my hands in to pluck the 'maters! I had some other tomato plants up by the house - the birds helped themselves.... grrrrr.... which proves that thick foliage hiding the tomatoes is a must.
I'm also counting the # of plants (or row feet in some cases) and keeping track of how much yield is achieved in either per person servings for fresh or how many quarts & pints.
Have lots of jalapenos to pick........... anyone know the timing for canning? I see them in jars and cans at the grocery, but don't see the time/method for canning the extras.
So much fun !!! But I will now have to remember never to go out to the gardens without having a few pails with me.
--- On Mon, 6/22/09, Robert Walton <waltonrp at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Robert Walton waltonrp at gmail.com
I ate a few last year. They are good. Iron and Clay is probably from the
color of the peas. I bought 50# last year, but whit the drought, opted not
to plant other than a few in the garden.
I just finished planting summer covers last week. I left two strips of the
same field with one 20 foot strip to iron and clay peas and another to red
beans. Idea is to let them mature and pick for dry beans/peas.
Cowpeas are supposed to have a good long taproot to break up hard soil. I
can say that every year in the garden, they stay going when it gets dry,
much longer than beans.
The rest of the peas, I interplanted with the sudan grass in one field,
interplanted buckwheat in the field that had the clover. One part of the
field was planted a month ago. With good rain, it's about 3 feet high. The
buckweat is in full bloom, stretching to keep ahead of the sudan. Lost
cause, I'm afraid, it will soon be smothered.
I'll cut the sudan when it's about 4 feet. According to my research, that
will cause it to react by sending out roots like crazy.
Rob - Va
On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 2:50 PM, EarthNSky <erthnsky at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I saw a bag of those in the feed store the other day. They were like
> $49 for a 50# bag, I think. I assumed they were a cover crop and
> feed.....good for human eating, too?? What do they look/taste like?
> I also assume that they are called iron clay because they do well on red
> clay to help loosen it? I don't have red clay, but I do have a rocky,
> untillable pasture and it would be nice to overseed a legume and have a
> legumy green manure. Would that be a waste of a good eating pea?
> B
>
> Robert Walton wrote:
>
> > I'm real later, but there is still enough time to plant some red
> > beans for dried peans, just going to plant a strip of them in the
> > field I am cover cropping. I'll also plant a strip of pure iron clay
> > peas there, too. I can use those for seeds and eating.
> >
> > Rob - Va
>
>
> --
> "Never expect magic from no where" Baringo (Kenyan) working motto
> EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA
>
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