Done with the beans!

[MontyJ]

I have picked my last green bean. We canned up 42 quarts and 25 pints and Dew blanched and froze another 23 quarts yesterday while I was cutting the grass and reworking the compost pile. Dew has a friend that is supposed to come over in a few days and pick what she wants, then I'm pulling the plants and trying a fall corn crop. I've never tried this before, but the calendar says I'll just have time before the first early frost.

 

[Carol Dee]

Oh My Goodness that is a lot of beans! Good for you. We are just seeing tiny little beans now! They had a tough start with rabbits. You must love having a longer growing season, with time for some extra fresh goodies before frost.

 

[baymule]

Awesome! I hope your corn does well and does not get hit by monsoon rains, hail, meteors, tornados, earthquakes, blizzards, locusts, or chewed up by starving, rabid, buck-toothed deer with corn deficiency disease.

 

[so lucky]

Monty, what kind of beans did you plant? How long are the rows? I know Dew said something about a reduced number of rows, but I was wondering how many feet of row you have, to produce that amount. You all sure have a lot more energy than I have! :/

 

[MontyJ]

This season Bay, I'm not counting anything out!

Lucky, I only planted 3 rows about 40' long. Production was way down from previous years, but 2 pickings still gave us enough. The variety is Blue Lake Bush. In the past we have canned over 100 quarts from the first picking alone, from 5 rows of the same length. We have enough now to carry us well into next years canning season.

 

[bj taylor]

42 Quarts? I have gotten two beans off my plants. something went way wrong. great plants - no bloom, no beans

 

[journey11]

Why did Dew freeze the last few? Run out of jars?

I've some mature beans on one of the rows of seed I am growing out for Bluejay, but so far all my others are mostly just working on getting bushy.

I've been wanting to plant a few more things, more sweet corn being one of them. I won't expect a first frost until around Oct. 19th at the earliest (and past two years have gone until the very last week of October for me), so with a conservative estimate, we should have about 98 more growing days left. If it keeps on raining 2-3 times a week like it has been, I'm sure it would germinate very quickly too! I've been holding off on planting anything else until I get my weedy nightmare under control though. :/

 

[MontyJ]

A couple of reasons Journey. We like fresh, steamed beans now and then, and these freeze really well. Also, I was working in the yard so couldn't help with the canner. When it's full, Dew has a very hard time trying to lift it. We have hundreds of jars. No danger of running out of those

 

[Jared77]

What variety of bean did you plant that freeze so well Monty?

 

[dewdropsinwv]

They are called Blue Lake Bush Beans... We LOVE them.