Drew Lawson wrote:

As is unfortunately too common for me, last year the garden got
away from me in the fall. Overwhelmed, I pretty much walked away.

So this weekend I finally got to the clean-out that I should have
been doing in November. In the course of clearing the dead plant
cages, I discovered that neither the birds nor the squirrels have
any interest in the black beans (Trail of Tears).

if they can't find them and they don't rot. around here
it would be unusual for beans to not rot over the winter
with all the rains we've had.

once in a great while i'll find a pod that has survived
and the seeds didn't rot, but it is pretty rare, and it
isn't any trait that is through the whole plant because
other pods nearby can be rotting. just the luck of the
draw/circumstances/fate or whatever you care to call it.


So now I have 5 cups of unexpected beans and am web surfing baked
bean recipes.

i cook beans up plain in water, no salt, no soaking, just
bring them to a boil with about double the volume of water
and then turn them down to a low simmer until done. stirred
when i turn them down and then once every half hour. very
simple. then after they're done, if i have a lot of them
we drain off the liquid (Mom doesn't like it) and put them
in jars and freeze them. they can then be used in other
dishes or eaten plain or put into baked beans.

the problem with making beans with a lot of spices, meats
and fats is that then you're asking for it being more
noticeable when you toot the gas out the other end. and
since what most people object to is the gas i figured out
that if i eat them fairly plain and my body gets used to
them usually i don't even notice or care and the digestion
system does get used to them as you gradually increase
them in your diet. so the other suggestion is to not just
go hog wild and eat a lot of spicy beans all at once but
to build up gradually by adding them to other things or
having small amounts as a side dish.

my biggest test of this is hummus. i like hummus.

i need to get some chickpea seeds that will work for
this area...


They are *mostly* black beans. Apparently the near-by blue lake
vines wandered into the cages. So I have 1:200 or so white beans.

I'll deal. And not plant them close to each other next time.

i'm happy to find beans that do well enough here in
our soils/gardens/conditions. last year i found several
that worked out so this coming year i have some other
similar beans to try out and compare to what i have
already grown.

always fun.

this coming weekend will be the seed swap so i've been
busy getting samples packaged and figuring out what i
want to take.

in the end i may just take everything as my collection
is now small enough that it fits in some boxes i can
move.


songbird