The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

More Green Beans

May 21st, 2009 · 2 Comments · Posted in Blog, garden

There's always something new to plant

There's always something new to plant

I had to make a sudden switch in my garden planting scheme this year after I decided to stop eating starchy carbohydrates. I had ordered a variety of favorite legumes–cranberry beans, black-eyed peas, peanuts–and realized there was no point taking up valuable garden space with them if we didn’t plan to eat them. Instead, I went out and bought more seeds for green beans.

In this picture, you can see the fava beans in the foreground doing exceedingly well. The flowers are beginning to wither and drop. We should be seeing new pods soon. In the background is a bed of the bush Italian flat beans that we like so well. They have such a luxurious, meaty flavor and texture. In between is an area I weeded yesterday in preparation for more bush beans–Bush Blue Lake–and edamame, or edible soy beans. Our daughter loves to pick the beans out of the pods after they’ve been lightly steamed.

Elsewhere, we’re growing two different pole beans, Kentucky Wonder and a Romano variety.

We'll be eating broccoli soon

We'll be eating broccoli soon

Look! Our first broccoli floret. Broccoli is especially healthful, and we eat lots of it. Even daughter likes it steamed with a little soy sauce. The climate in the District of Columbia is not partucularly favorable to cool-weather broccoli, but we are hoping this will be our year for a bumper crop. As you can see, we are pampering it with lots of sun and a nice bed of straw mulch.

Tuscan kale is a champ

Tuscan kale is a champ

Tuscan kale, sometimes called black kale, is another of our favorites. The long narrow leaves are easy to harvest. Eventually the plant will look like a small palm, offering its leaves for our dinner table. Just a few make a nice harvest. We only need two or three plants to keep us in kale for the rest of the season. Unlike many other brassicas, Tuscan kale also will stand up to our local heat and humidity, plugging along right through summer.

Ever heard of Tokyo bekana?

Ever heard of Tokyo bekana?

Here’s a leafy green that often flies under the radar: Tokyo bekana. It looks like a lettuce, but actually it’s a brassica, the Japanese version of a Chinese cabbage. Instead of cooking it, we use the mildly spicy leaves in salads. It also makes a bright display in the garden. I just broadcast a few seeds and let the plants grow where they will.

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  • ppolischuk

    Hi Ed,

    Have you had any trouble with caterpillars on your brassicas? I have some small green caterpillars (diamond back moth, I think) feeding heavily on my broccoli and brussels sprouts. Any advice? So far I’ve been picking them off once or twice a day–we’ve accepted our fate as being broccoli- and brussels sprout-less this spring.

  • patpaquette

    FAVA BEANS!!! Fava beans are to green beans what filet mignon is to hamburger. They’re in at Pike Place Market, bought my first batch of the season on Monday. I lightly steam them with a little fresh ground pepper, nothing else.