October 11, 2010: The Final Harvest Monday, or Five Days and Counting

Five short days until we leave for Arizona! I had planned on finishing up with my garden cleanup, but wouldn't you know it's been pouring rain. I actually went out in the downpour and ripped some of the Ottawa Cranberry beans off the side fence, and piled the vines on the patio. Very few of them had dried, but they had to come out.


I shelled those that were close, and put them in a basket on the plant window shelf, where I'm hoping they will continue to dry.


Those that were still far from being dry were left in the pods and put in the hanging fruit basket in the kitchen. They will probably stay right there until I return next spring, as I know it will take longer than five days for the pods to dry out. Or maybe they won't dry, and I'll come home to a mildewy mess!

That might have been about 1/3 of the cranberry bean crop. I hope it stops raining long enough to pull out the rest of them today.


I had better luck with the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans. From the 25 seeds that were sent to me by Daphne's Dandelions, I harvested exactly one pound of dry beans! The ones in the pint jar have already been in the freezer to kill any creepy crawlies that may have taken residence in them, the others are going to air dry for a few days. Most of them are quite dry already, but there are a few that are still a bit soft (the larger, lighter colored beans).

The final dried beans are Fortex, being saved for next years pole bean crop. There were also quite a few that were not yet dried on the vines, but all of those in the plastic cup are good to use for seeds, and that's a lot more than came in the packet from the nursery, which gave me a wonderful bean harvest through the summer! I think most of the beans that are still drying should be OK, too.

Seeds for all of the above beans were from Daphne, who is also our hostess for Harvest Monday.


The harvests were small this week. The last of the lettuce leaves were pulled from the bolting plants. It's too bitter for us, but the pet rabbit likes it. There were a couple of cucumbers and just enough tomatoes for the dinner salads. Otto and Annie got fresh green beans with their chicken dinner. That's about the last of the pole beans, but the freezer is full.


Then came the 17 pounds of green peppers and a big bunch of basil. The large peppers were all given away to my kids, and I kept a few of the smaller ones for us and the dogs. Since Kelly told me her dog eats them, I tried feeding slices to Otto and Annie....and they loved them! They've always eaten green beans and carrots, raw or cooked, but I never thought to give them peppers. They work just fine for Annie's snacks during her diet, low in calories and high in vitamin C!


A few more radishes were pulled, but the rest are just tops with long, squiggly roots. Cookie, the house rabbit, loves radish tops, so they'll go into his food bag. A few tomatoes are still hanging in there, as well as the cucumbers.



Are cosmos supposed to get 8' tall and not go into full bloom until mid October? I've had an occasional blossom on this, maybe one or two a month, until this week. Now look at it, and it's loaded with buds. That's only one of the flower stalks. I cut the others back when they began getting so tall and showing no sign of blooming.

34 comments:

  1. Those are nice looking seed beans. Hopefully mine will look as good.
    The weather is doing weird things to the plants, I have flowers on my pepper plants with little peppers every where. And the tomatoes have blossoms and little tomatoes,too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you have had a good season. I stripped my garden this weekend, I have to just finish digging over. Although I have not weighed my crops I know I have had an excellent season.

    Safe trip to Arizona , Saturday I drive back to the UK for winter, How stupid, going North for winter. but as that is where my husband works so there is no choice in the matter. I will be back in France early April. Diane

    ReplyDelete
  3. oops, forgot something. If you leave the beans in the hanging basket you may want to put the paper towel under the beans are you'll have beans all over the floor in the spring. I can see the pods bursting open and letting the beans escape.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DaBeardedOne, I know. I had so many dollar sized and smaller peppers that ended up in the compost, and lots of blossoms. The Trail of Tears beans were beginning to bloom again, too. That first planting of morning glories still hasn't given me a single blossom, while the later planted ones are full of blooms. My Sweet Williams never did bloom, either.

    I'll put a towel under the beans ;-)

    ********
    Diane, I'm growing weary of this trip south each year. I'm ready to spend a winter here, in my recliner, in front of the fireplace. I like it at our other place, but I'm just not liking the long drive there and back any more. I also worry about leaving our house empty. We came home to a broken window last spring, someone had thrown a rock at it. It probably would have happened if we were here, but what if it had broken the window completely out instead of just putting a big crack in it? Anyone could have stepped right in and stolen us blind. When I'm here, I worry about the AZ place, when I'm there I worry about this place.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Look at all the cool beans! I ripped my cosmos out, some bloomed, some didn't. I decided I hate cosmos. Too big of a plant for such a small flower. Not worth it in my opinion. Look at all your peppers! Wow.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your bean seed harvest looks great! 'Trail of Tears' looks like one to try next yeat. Last year my cosmos behaved the same way, this year they bloomed heavily al summer. Sweet Williams are a biennial and should bloom for you next spring.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Boy Granny, you harvested a lot of bell peppers this year! My bell peppers did not do well this year. I think it was the lack of rain.

    "The Italian" and I are leaving for New Orleans on Friday. I think that you should drive there and hang out with us!! We would have a blast!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fortex is just my favorite. What a beautiful, nutty flavor. Put that AZ place up on the market while you're there. It can't hurt and you could come home early if it sold.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's so sad to see it end. Stay safe on your trip south.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those beans look good, a deep inky blue. I must try different beans next year.

    Have a safe trip!

    ReplyDelete
  11. 5 days? Wow, time flies! It's the norm for my cosmos to get 8-10 ft tall but mine bloom all summer and fall - I HATE them they are everywhere, a self seeding mess LOL! I really need to dry beans someday, I still have never done that.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm going to have to try feeding green beans to our Rowdy dog, it's one of the few things we have never tried on him. I bet cooked, they would be an excellent addition to his dog food. He can't have any of my peppers though.:)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Meemsnyc, I think the cosmos are gorgeous, I wish I hadn't cut all the others down. I do need a better place in the yard for them to naturalize though, this one is in a plastic container. There's a nasty rose bush behind it that needs to be dug out or killed, then the cosmos (cosmoses?) would be fine right there in that corner.

    ********
    Ed, thank you! If you hadn't told me that, I'd have pulled them all out!

    Those Trail of Tears beans are an heirloom type, and can be eaten either as green beans or dried. I had just that tiny planting, a double 4' row, so that was a lot of beans from such a small space. I haven't tasted them yet, and I didn't try them as green beans as I had so many other varieties for that.

    ********
    Robin, those bells should have all been red. I had very few of them color up this year, but even in the green stage they were so sweet! You and your Tom have a wonderful trip, and eat a few beignets for me, OK?

    ********
    Tsk, tsk Ribbit. You haven't been paying attention to my blogs, have you? We put the AZ place on the market over a year ago. We've already done two drastic price drops, and we're hoping we don't have to give it away. The economy is rotten down there, and one cannot get financing on older mobile homes so a buyer has to have the cash. We missed the seller's market by about a year. Even though it's an old mobile, I put in a ton of work on it, so it's very nice for what it it is. Plus, it has over a half acre of land. But it's also in a town of about 400 people and it's 25 miles from basic shopping. We've had quite a few show interest, but so far no offers. http://tinyurl.com/29sezq8

    ********
    The Mom, it's freeway driving much of the way, good wide highways for all but the last 75 miles of the 1200 mile trip. We always leave on a Saturday so our trip through Las Vegas is on a Sunday, with little traffic. I can usually fly right through the city at 70MPH and no traffic jams. My only problem is getting enough sleep the first night out in Jackpot, NV. Mr. Granny has to drag me to the room, kicking and screaming, from the casino, LOL!

    ********
    Thanks, TIG.

    ********
    Erin, I've noticed little cosmos plants springing up where that container used to sit. I'm glad it's not near the dill, as they look a lot alike. Where it is now would be a fine place for it to naturalize, rather pretty there in fact.

    ********
    Mr. H., green beans make a great filler, when combined with the other foods, for overweight dogs like Annie. She can have a whole cup full for very few calories and lots of fiber. Annie and Otto both love their green beans, cooked or raw. That's always their special treat when we're out in the garden.

    I'd balk at the peppers too, if I didn't already have so man in the freezer....along with about two gallon bags from last year!




    ********

    ReplyDelete
  14. The dry beans really are beautiful. When I see harvests like that, it makes me want to incorporate all these different veggies more into my diet, just so that I can grow them. I'm chuckling at the image of Mr. Granny dragging you out of the casino. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thyme2, this is my first ear of growing beans for drying. The last of the Fortex were saved for seed, as the price of seed plus shipping charges from the seed catalog were just outrageous. I did save some seeds from last year's beans, too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Granny - I've never grown beans to dry, but looking at your pictures is inspiring.

    I'm glad I found your blog!

    -Mary

    ReplyDelete
  17. Mary, I'm glad you found my blog too, because that led me to yours!

    ReplyDelete
  18. We will definitely have a few beignets for you Granny!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Good luck with the beans, I hope you come back to a nice pile of perfectly dry ready to plant beans. This year everything is ripening so late in the west coast, bummer that your peppers didn't turn red, but this must be a very good variety if they were sweet even as green peppers.

    Have a good trip south, I hope you enjoy your time there and you find a buyer for your place at a price that you like.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I grew Cosmos Sensation one year and it got real tall like that and waited until very late to bloom. I didn't grow it again.

    Nice haul of green peppers! Too bad about the cranberry beans, but they may well dry over the winter. Not much to lose by trying. I wish I had room to grow dry beans but I'm not willing to give up any space to grow them. There's so many beautiful and tasty varieties out there, like those cranberry beans for instance.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Such pretty beans.

    Do you remember my cosmos last year? They were a good foot or two taller than me! That was either sept or october I posted that. My cosmos are still blooming pretty good right now. I didn't plant new ones. They were self seeders, but they didn't get anywhere near as big. Only 2-3 ft this year. Hmmm. Crazy cosmos!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thanks, Angela. We've already dropped our price way lower than the taxed value, so we're just about at the break even point right now.

    ********
    Villager, when I pulled the rest of the beans this morning, there were a lot of dried pods underneath. Probably not enough for a meal, but more than enough to use for seeds next year. I'll be sure to plant them where they won't be crowded out by tomatoes and Four 'O Clocks!

    ********
    Shawn Ann, our neighbor has cosmos volunteering all over, and they are only about 2' tall. That's why I was so surprised to see these giants. I think they are lovely, I just want them shorter and earlier blooming.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I had a cosmos that did that one year. I just grew amazingly tall and very sturdy. Though mine never bloomed. I got frustrated with it finally in September and had trouble cutting it down it was so huge.

    ReplyDelete
  24. See, Daphne, you should have left them until October! I wish I hadn't cut the rest of them off, but they were wilting so I think I damaged the roots when I moved the container.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Nice beans! I haven't tried dried beans yet. They look interesting, and we love dried beans. Great to keep in the pantry for a comfort food dinner. I think going back and forth from AZ to WA would get tiring. If we did that, I think I wouldn't be ready to leave yet. Packing up for that long must be hard! I know what it's like to leave for a week or so, can't imagine months!
    ~~Lori

    ReplyDelete
  26. Lori, it's the actual driving that I'm tired of, along with the fact that I just miss being able to see my kids/grandkids whenever I want. We'll just miss little Alicyn's second birthday, and think of how she'll grow in the next few months.

    There really isn't all that much packing, as the household is all set up down there. I own two of everything, so I don't have to move stuff back and forth. Just our clothes, and the kitchen stuff....soda, baking powder, cornstarch, spice jars. All that stuff I don't want to have to buy fresh as soon as we get down there. I've filled two plastic containers so far, and have two more started. A suitcase for the overnight hotel stay and the refrigerator contents and that's about it.

    ReplyDelete
  27. were yours self seeders? Maybe that is why they are blooming so late if they are. I usually start mine early indoors or get transplants at the nursery and they bloom earlier. They do take forever it seems, though.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Shawn Ann, no. I started them from purchased seeds last March or April, and transplanted the seedlings into a largish container. When they got over 4' tall, I moved them over to that corner by the shed. Most of them wilted down and I cut them off. That middle one looked pretty healthy, so I let it grow. Like I said, I've had maybe 1-2 blossoms a month up until now.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I love all your beans. I think I will try the Fortex beans for next year. Your peppers look good even if they didn't turn red.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Debbie, the Fortex beans were the best green beans I've ever grown. They get really tall though, make sure you have an 8'-10' support for them!

    ReplyDelete
  31. I have a bunch of beans in the pod trying to finish drying in the shop. Have them on a screen and a fan blowing on them. They are actually drying down but it is taking forever and prior to putting hte fan on them, I was losing lots to mold and rot. The fan made a big difference and turning them daily.

    The peppers are beauties! I would never have thought to feed peppers to dogs - learn something new every day.

    I hope you have a safe journey and that you have a good internet connection this year because we miss you when you are offline so much. :D

    ReplyDelete
  32. Kitsap, I got quite a few dry ones from yesterday's picking, so I think I'm going to go ahead and shell and cook up a few of the others. If we like them, I can blanch and freeze the rest. I'd hate for those beautiful beans to spoil and go to waste.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I had that problem this year as well with my cosmos. orange ones were normal, but some from a shaker can of wild flowers got to be 8 feet tall. I actually pulled them up before they bloomed though. They reseed so well that I didn't want the giant monsters coming up again next year.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Urban Gardener, I don't mind 8' tall flowers as long as they grow where I want them to! I'll definitely scatter the remaining seeds around that corner of the yard, and let any of them that want to grow do so. In the future, I'll watch for a variety that is shorter! The seed packet for this variety said 4-5 feet. I guess we can just about double that.

    ReplyDelete