Bean Tasting

Sunday evening we did a bean tasting of the five different varieties of beans we grew this year. Lined up from left to right are Jacob's cattle, cannelini, red Mexican, black turtle, and Flambo cranberry beans. Karen and Glen joined us for the tasting, and Rick and Catherine also came, so with me, Rick, and Buddy, we had a full table. I brought cheese, hot sauce, and sour cream to go with the beans. The tasting results were mixed. I hadn't really cooked the beans long enough in some cases. The red Mexicans were nicely done and creamy, while the Jacob's cattle were good although I think the Flambo were the best.

Jacob's cattle were the earliest beans, harvested the last week in July, then came the cannelinis a week later. I didn't note the dates (!) but the red Mexican beans must have come next, with the black turtle beans being the latest. The Flambo were on a different schedule, and I think I harvested them a bit late. Even the latest beans came out in plenty of time to put fall crops behind them. The Flambo were in the backyard, and they had fully twice the space, but they produced mightily! This is my largest bowl, and it's filled to the brim with fat tasty beans.

The ones at the farm were all planted in the same amount of space so I could judge the yield. The red Mexican were the most prolific for the space, coming in at 2.25 jars. Next were the turtle beans at just over 2 jars, followed by Jacob's cattle at 1.25 jars, and the cannelini produced the least, at three-quarters of a jar. But nobody is going hungry this winter! Between the dried beans, the piles of zucchini relish, bag after bag of dried tomatoes, and freezer full of tomato sauce and hot sauce, I think we'll feast all winter. Of course, we'll also be harvesting broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, bok choi, and kale in the winter to go with. Mmmmm... bean and kale soup.

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Weather Note
As noted in my last post, it rained pretty hard on Saturday. It had stopped so we decided to go farming, but halfway there, it started to pour. We can see the raindrops from the back window of the bar.

The garden got a good soaking. It's really overgrown, and I've started pulling up some of the tomatoes. The rain gauge said we got 1.1 inches.

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We also quickly realized that even though I carefully gleaned the bean fields, some are going to escape. We've been picking the bean sprouts and feeding them to the chickens for a high-protein treat. Next year, I'll keep all the "reject" beans to try to sprout as well.