And boy, as a memorial to their eaten brothers, have these guys gone into overproduction. We're up to our eyebrows in beans. But then, I always overplant because I expect Mr. Bunny's relatives to eat at least some of them.
It's been very difficult to pick the bean crop. Hurricane Irene didn't bring any rain our way, but we sure got a LOT of wind and it blew over not only the bean poles, but the tomato cages, too. Everything's a mish-mash and it's hard to get in and find the beans. But Friday we picked half a grocery bag of them because there's no way we could eat them all now. And thus began the job of freezing them.
Since it's been so hard to pick the beans (there's a fence to contend with, plus we're trying to grow new grass on the other side of it), a lot of them are far too big and tough to eat. No problem! We've had problems getting seeds for the variety of beans we prefer. And, in fact, most of this year's crop was from seeds I collected two and three years ago. They came up just like clockwork. The pile of beans on the right are just some of the ones I'm drying for next year's seed crop.
After blanching, they went into the ice bath (which in this case happens to be the top of my Tupperware cake tote).
By the time we'd sorted through the beans, we got six bags to freeze. I estimate we'll have at least that much to do today, too.
Yeah, we could buy a bag of frozen beans for $1.99 that would probably last us for 2-3 meals, but this is so much more satisfying. I guess only another gardener would understand.
What have you frozen or canned from your veggie garden this year?
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By the way, today I'm guest blogging on my friend Dru-Ann Love's blog, Dru's Book Musings about my new cookbook, RECIPES TO DIE FOR. I hope you'll come by to see what Katie Bonner has to say about the book.
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Home grown is always better. It tastes better and gives you such a feeling of accomplishment. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteGosh, your beans look yummy. Nothing beats home-grown goodies. ::smackslips::
ReplyDeleteI just tried a new (to me) way of cooking some fresh green beans I got at our local Farmers' Market -- one ham hock, 4 cups of water, a half an onion, 2 slices of bacon (cut up), and some salt, pepper, and a couple of smashed cloves of garlic plus the 3-4 hands-full of green beans I got. Heated the chopped up bacon in the pot until it gave off most of its bacon fat, then dumped everything but the beans in the pot & brought the water to a boil. Then tossed in the cleaned & broken up into bite-size bites of beans. Lid on, low simmered for about 1 1/2-2 hrs. Oh, tossed in some new red potatoes (making sure they were all about the same size) during the last 30-45 minutes. Oh! SOOOO good! Even the left-over water broth is good. Gotta get me some more beans & reds this week. We won't have the Farmers' Market for many more Thursdays. (Wonder of wonders, even hubby liked this.)