Late Summer Beans

Posted byNancy Taylor RobsonPosted inSustainable LivingTags:, , , , ,
 

 
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Yesterday I picked my first batch of the second wave of haricots verts.   I’m so excited! Slim little things hanging in clusters off a small patch of French green beans that I planted about six weeks ago in a spot that earlier in the season had held leeks.  

 
 Though truly organized gardeners usually get in a whole series of plantings of fall crops, sometimes well into the fall — and then they cover them and carry them through February winters like the one we had last year — I often miss getting a second planting of anything in the garden. But this year weather, energy and timing coincided to make it possible. My husband happened to be home at just the right time to plant, which helped tremendously. I had emptied and weeded (oh so much weeding this summer!) the beds, but he scooped out a lot of compost and spread it on them. I planted arugula, lettuce, kale (from saved seed that was given me by a young gardener friend). I also had a half of the packet of French beans from Cooks’ Garden leftover from the first planting, so emptied it into one of those fresh, beautifully rich-looking squares of earth.  In planting bush beans, I always put the seeds on top of the soil in a grid with each seed about six inches apart from its fellows. When they sprout, you need to weed a little, but as they grow they shade out the weeds. Convenient and efficient.
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Three weeks of no rain here rather too me by surprise. I had gotten out of the habit of watering.  But several days ago – after Erica’s mention of having to get out the watering can, in fact – I filled a couple of five gallon buckets from the rain barrels by the shed and watered the haricots verts and the Calypso beans in the  bed that earlier had held the hardneck garlic, which came out in early July.Image

And so now, I have beans. And lots of blossoms that promise more beans. These first beans, nothing like the rather sad-looking things I’ve been seeing at the grocery store lately, are crisp, slimmer-than-pencil babies that taste wonderful. I sautéed half with a shallot for supper. Takes about eight minutes, and I have a couple of roasted golden beets in the frig for beet and bean salad for lunch tomorrow. I’m hoping for beans  until frost with maybe enough to put a few in the freezer in vaccum sealed bags. (I gave my hunter husband a vacuum sealer for his birthday a few years ago; it’s been a big help in keeping the quality and preventing freezer burn). Meanwhile, I’m grateful for this second flush of production. Summer’s not QUITE over!

Read more: http://groweat.blogspot.com/2013/09/late-summer-beans.html#ixzz2f9XNqQUa

Published by Nancy Taylor Robson

I grew up sailing and building boats with my dad, married a tugboat captain, (who I'm still happily married to) and embarked on a life of adventure, challenge and fun. My first book, Woman in the Wheelhouse, told the sometimes harrowing story of working on an old coastal tugboat as cook/deckhand then worked in Mexico in the Campeche oil fields on a supply boat. I was one of the first women in the country to earn a tug operator's license. I'm the author of three other books, Course of the Waterman, which won the Fred Bonnie Prize for the novel, the historical novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, and OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters, which I wrote with longtime RN and hospice nurse, Sue Collins during the time my mother-in-law was moving to the end of her life. My second, Course of the Waterman, the coming of age novel of a young Eastern Shore waterman, won the Fred Bonnie award in 2004. My third book, second novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, takes readers into the lives of the new nation's strong-willed second First Lady and her stubborn, often-absent and adored husband, John, our second US President. I wrote the book because I'd spent big chunks of time raising children alone while my husband was at sea and felt an affinity for Abigail, but also looked to her life as a MUCH bigger challenge that informed and encouraged my own. My fourth book, OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters (Head to Wind Publishing, 2014) was written in collaboration with Sue Collins, RN and longtime hospice nurse and has received heartwarming feedback on how helpful it's been to many caregivers. A freelance writer for many years, I've published personal essays, features, maritime reporting and analysis, travel, garden and more for such places as The Washington Post, Yachting, House Beautiful, The Baltimore Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, Southern Living, Sailing, and more. I'm also a University of Maryland Master Gardener who grows and cans the family's fruits and vegetables, and a Bay-Wise program certifier. I write, sail, race sailboats (occasionally), walk the German Shepherd dogs, and cook for friends and family.

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