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I snapped the ends off, then blanched, cooled and drained them well. They were placed on plastic lined trays and frozen before bagging.
While the beans were freezing, I made five 5' carrot seed tapes. Then I dug through the short potato bed #1, hoping I had all of the potatoes removed. I didn't find any, so I smoothed out the bed and planted the five rows of carrots. I had to erect a makeshift fence around the bed to keep Annie and Otto out of it. They just love their days in the garden, second only to their love of going bye-bye in the car, so I've been leaving the gate open for them now that most plants are large enough to take it.
By then it was 96 degrees, and too hot to work outside. Once in the house, the phone rang and it was my youngest son asking if I wanted a box of apricots, so off we went to pick them up. I only had enough sugar and pectin for one batch of jam, so the rest will have to be done tomorrow.
I ended up with five pints of apricot pineapple jam for the pantry.
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And bagged up 3 1/2 pounds of green beans for the freezer.
The remainder of the apricots will have to be made into jam tomorrow. I'd also like to get another bed dug and planted in the east garden. I think I'll put in another row of bush beans, and a row of cabbages. That's all I'll have room for until I dig another bed of potatoes, which has to be done real soon!
Love the idea of pulling the plants BEFORE you pick! I'm SO doing that this year! So much easier. Esp since by then I'll have big squash plants right near them which I don't want to drag potential powdery mildew around that area. hm. I don't even have flowers yet! They're in a cooler area of the garden than they were this year though. We're just finishing the peas! We're so far behind you guys now!
ReplyDeleteAmyT, be sure you get three or four pickings from them before you pull them. The heat was doing a job on mine (and me) so I rushed it a bit. I'll be more receptive to picking bush beans in the fall.
Deleteps. That Jam Looks Droolalicious!
ReplyDeleteAmyT, it's pretty good, judging from the sample I saved out.
DeleteThe only thing missing from this scenario is a husband coming home and saying "what did you do all day?"-LOL
ReplyDeleteI love this time of year-the days are so full and just fly by.
Sue, he doesn't have to "come home" to say that. He says it when he moves from his TV to the dinner table!
DeleteYour beans certainly were productive. I'm glad that Velour did so well for you. I'm hoping to get a second planting in this weekend.
ReplyDeleteEd, they produced at least twice the crop my "old" favorite did! I wonder if they were crossing with the green ones though. Most of the beans in the final picking were more green than purple. I'll have to make sure I plant them away from each other next time.
DeleteHi just fell upon your blog, jam is looking so yummy never had that flavour. x
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog, Diane! That's my husband's favorite jam. He'll only eat that or grape jelly, nothing else.
DeleteHow long do you blanch your beans. I never find the texture right when I freeze them. But this year I really want to have green beans for the winter.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I blanch them for 3 minutes. I hate frozen beans from the store, so I don't know why these turn out so good. Maybe it's the variety. I don't like my beans firm, and squeaky on the teeth. Both the French filet and the Fortex freeze well for me, but Mr. Granny especially likes the French filet. At least, when I cooked a frozen package of those, he said "good beans".
DeleteYou sure have been one busy bee! I need to sow some carrots too. I just don't know how I will get them to germinate and get going in this hot dry weather we are having.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I set up an extra sprinkler in the east garden, so I can put all my late seeds there and keep them watered without soaking the rest of the garden. We are actually getting s shower this morning, after a terrible thunder and wind storm most of the night. I was surprised to see the corn still standing when I woke up.
DeleteApricot pineapple jam--yum.
ReplyDeleteI had to pull my spring planted green beans, too. I was pretty sad about it. I had hoped to have some to freeze for winter, but only ended up with enough beans for my family to eat 2 times a week during the season. I'll plant more next year, and maybe add a new variety, too. (I am keeping one of the three I planted this year, but would like one other for another location.)
Oh, wow, Cristy. I ended up with just over 17 1/2 pounds from those two single ten-foot rows. I was just getting tired of picking them, and the production was slowing down a bit. Try Velour if you want one that produces a lot.
DeleteThat's how I felt with the peaches the other day. Today it's the tomatoes. All 45 pounds of them!
ReplyDeleteLangela, I wish I had that problem right now....peaches and tomatoes. Especially peaches, tomatoes will come soon enough.
DeleteYou're a busy lady. That jam looks so pretty, I bet it's delicious.
ReplyDeleteAnywhere, I usually don't have lovely apricots offered to me! I have plenty to make jam to last the year :-)
DeleteI have just discovered your blog and just love it. Especially the photos.
ReplyDeleteShoba
Thank you, Shoba, and welcome to my blog!
DeleteLove those purple beans!!! Sooo pretty! My beans were eaten by a woodchuck. He has good taste =(
ReplyDeleteDorothy, I'm sorry your beans got eaten! I guess I'm lucky I just have birds and bugs to deal with here. I did see a rock chuck (marmot) in the yard once, several years ago, but he didn't stay long. We're only a few blocks from the levee where they live, so I'm surprised we haven't seen more of them. We had one skunk wander through, but I never saw any more of them, either.
DeleteI am getting ready to do my big pea patch harvest,and I always do them the way you did those bush beans - pulling the plant up and then stripping them of the pods. Works great and opens up the bed for another crop to be planted in. You have been majorly busy from the sounds of it.
ReplyDeleteKitsap, there aren't enough (cool) hours in the day now! I need to get up earlier in the mornings :-(
DeleteWow that's a lot of work, but it looks soooo good!
ReplyDeleteI would like to read instructions on how you made your carrot tapes please. What an amazing harvest you are having, so far I have had lots of raspberries and blueberries but the slugs have got all my strawberries and I've only had a few french beans from the plot.
ReplyDeleteLiz, I cut toilet tissue into 1/2" wide strips and place dots of Elmer's School glue (water soluble) every 2". Scatter your seeds on a flat surface, like a paper plate, and pick them up one at a time with the tip of a toothpick and drop them onto the glue spots...dampen the end of the toothpick first, either lick it or stick it in some glue. Hang the strips on a hanger to dry. They can be made in advance and rolled up for storing. It sounds more labor intensive than it is, it takes mere minutes to do several strips. It takes much longer to thin a row of carrots, plus that wastes a lot of seeds. If you want to make carrot seed mats, the directions are in my sidebar under Special Posts and Ttutorials.
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