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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] rainy end to market season

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Kate Spinner <kespinner@gmail.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] rainy end to market season
  • Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:30:02 -0400

My grandparents in North Carolina always grew field peas - more commonly known as cow peas. A few months ago, my grandmother gave me some peas she had saved and I planted them here in southwest Florida. I haven't had much time to tend to them, but despite my neglect they have produced an amazing mass of peas and snaps that are absolutely delicious fresh. They can also be saved dry like regular beans to be eaten later, or as seeds for the next crop. I don't understand why field peas - or cow peas - are not more common at farmers markets nationwide. They're easy to grow and very tasty. They are technically bush beans, but they also like to climb and can be directed upward to save space. Additionally, as with any legume, they improve the soil.

On Oct 21, 2010, at 10:53 PM, Tradingpost wrote:


We're not growing any shell beans due to being a very small, highly intensive operation (less than 1/4 acre with no tiller needed). We focus on what will bring higher returns for the space they take up (and still sell). People here expect to get dried beans in bulk and very cheap. Pintos and bolitas here are field grown and mechanically harvested and cleaned at low profit. And nobody is bringing dried beans to market.

Barb tells me they might be called borlotti beans which has great bean flavor. Our pole green beans have been a small seller but we need to use narrow fence beds for beans. We've stuck with the Italian Romanos for flavor. People keep coming back to praise our best sellers but we do several crops that sell less to supplement the best sellers. It'd be easier to just do the best sellers, but for customers who don't want our finest varieties of tomatoes, sweet peppers, or winter squash we need other things that appeal to enough customers to raise total sales. There are intangible rewards but it takes year round work and planning just to break even for most market growers. Bottom line: if it doesn't even pay for itself then market customers simply won't have markets to grow fresh and local for them. Along with the spread of home growing, market growing must be worth doing for local food security. These are the twin issues that are about to loom very large in this country.

As long as dried beans that store indefinitely are available in bulk at low cost people should buy them.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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On 10/21/2010 at 1:02 PM pbunch@cox.net wrote:

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Do you grow cranberry beans? These are the mainstay here and they are
really good. I don't recall seeing them on the market in Southern
California

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