Annie's Rainbow Beans

They are beautiful, aren't they? Oh, but you should taste them sauteed with ham!! These are Annie's Rainbow beans, a combination of Contender, Golden Wax, Royal Burgundy, and Dragon's Tongue. I bought all of my seeds from Annie's Heirloom Seeds. (They don't know of this blog, I have no affiliation with them other than I purchase my seeds from them.) One of the things I like about their website is there are collections such as these beans and that makes it easier to experiment with different varieties. In the collections the individual varieties of seeds are packaged separately so they aren't all mixed together leaving you guessing. (At least that it true with the tomatoes, the beans may have come in one package. You can tell the beans apart, the varieties look different.) 

These beans are my current favorite thing in the garden, and they were a surprise. I thought I was planting a mix of pole beans and I put them at the base of one of my tee pees. It turns out they are bush beans and the mistake was mine. I didn't read the package well. So these are the pole beans that aren't. The flowers are sure pretty.

I can eat the beans uncooked right out in the garden, crisp and flavorful, but here's one of our favorite quick meals...

Add a little butter into a saute pan, add the beans and stir fry them for a few minutes, then add small pieces of ham and heat until the ham is slightly brown. Prepared this way, the beans are lightly cooked and still a bit crunchy, just the way I like them. YUM!

Sometimes the best things are unintentional. We are loving these bush beans so much that I am planting more every three weeks so we can have a continual supply throughout the summer! 

The Pole Beans that Aren't

Bush bean "mix" on the left, pole beans on the right.

I thought I was planting pole beans, but they aren't. They are bush beans. It was my mistake, no one to blame but me. I decided not to buy bush beans this year. Instead my plan was to make 5 tee pee trellises and plant pole beans in succession. Somehow I bought a mix of bush beans by mistake, and planted them first. They came up beautifully. Three weeks later I planted the second tee pee with Cosse Violetta pole beans.

April 23, 2015

Imagine my surprise when the mix didn't start to twist their way up the twine. The "mix" are bush beans, and they are bushy! They won't be climbing anything.

Bush bean mix

Bush bean plant with multiple stems.

Bush beans grow to about 3 feet high and two feet wide. They tend to produce their beans all at one time.

Pole beans are vines that can grow 8-10 feet long. They need trellises like my tee pees. 

Cosse Violetta pole beans climbing the tee pee.

Pole beans have one twining stem.

The bush beans are healthy so I'll let them grow. They are starting to bloom.

Next time I'll read the package better. But for now I'm going to enjoy those bush beans that are coming soon!

Ginger Green Beans with Cashews

Sometimes the garden gives you delicious gifts such as these green beans that volunteered to sprout in my garden. I love it when that happens! My green beans were planted in succession. The harvest was wonderful but I had to pull the plants due to spider mites. I decided not to plant more then the volunteers appeared, and these plants faired much better. It seems the spider mites were bad during the early summer and not as bad in August/Sept. That's good to know for next year. I will continue to sow green beans until August, or maybe the volunteers will be back and save me the effort.

These vegan stir fry green beans are quick and easy, with added protein from cashew butter and cashews. You could easily substitute peanut butter or another type of nut. I enjoy the cashews because their sweetness combines well with ginger. 

I love ginger. It finds its way into my food because it is delicious but also because of its anti inflammatory and anti nausea benefits. I recently planted ginger in my garden for the first time. Read more about growing ginger and its health benefits here. 

I apologize that there are no exact measurements with this recipe, I just sort of estimate how much to add. It's the "add a little of this, and a little of that" approach to cooking that I learned from my husband who is a gourmet cook. He taught me to cook. I'm a lucky girl.

1 tablespoon Peanut Oil, or substitute another type of oil such as olive.

Green Beans a couple of handfuls, rinsed, dried then cut if desired.

1/2 to 1 tablespoon Ginger, peeled and minced. The more, the spicier.

2-3 tablespoons Cashew Butter 

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1/3 Cashews, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup Cilantro, coarsely chopped, plus one sprig for garnish.

1 tablespoon Sesame Seeds

Heat the oil over medium heat. 

Add the ginger and stir for 3-4 minutes taking care not to burn it. 

Add the green beans and stir another 3-4 minutes until the beans are slightly cooked. I like mine to be al dente.

Push the green beans to the edge of the pan and add the cashew butter and soy sauce to the center of the pan.

Stir the soy sauce into the cashew butter then mix it with the green beans to coat them.

My apologies for the poor quality of these photos. I have yet to develop the ability to take nice pictures without burning the food.

Add the cashews and stir fry another 2 minutes to heat the nuts.

Remove from the heat and place in serving dish.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and cilantro, then garnish with a sprig of cilantro.

Now let's have a toast to the volunteers. "Cheers!"

Prolong Your Harvest - Succession Planting

Pole beans and tomatoes planted in succession.

Want to enjoy green beans all summer? Plant seeds at 3 week intervals. Known as succession planting, this allows you to enjoy fresh vegetables for a longer season as not all of your crop will be ripe at once.

Learn from my mistake. Last spring I put in my garden to keep busy as my kids grew up. To say I was inspired is putting it lightly. I had a new project and nothing makes me happier than a new project. I couldn't wait to get the seeds planted because I couldn't wait to see the garden turn green. 

On the seed packets, it was suggested that I plant seeds in succession but I couldn't resist. I planted everything at once. Later in the summer I regretted it. All my beans were gone and there were still weeks of hot bean growing weather left in the season. Too late to plant then, but if I had taken the seed packet advise I would have enjoyed those beans for many more weeks.

This year I planted melons in succession, roughly 3 weeks apart.

Melons mounds (left to right); cantaloup, honeydew, Crenshaw, cantaloup

Carrots were planted in 3 week intervals. So far I have 4 plantings of carrots. We are eating the first round, and the fourth round just germinated.

First carrots of the season, harvested May 11.

This is my cucumber mound. The plants on the right were planted on March 4th. The ones toward the back/left were planted April 5th. There are two types of cucumbers planted in the same mound for variety.

For me, it's all about learning as I go. It's amazing how much I learned about vegetable gardening in the year since I started my urban garden. 

Like... it's good to take advise from seed packets.