Fall Beans

Our garden didn't do very well this year.  We had a very wet spring, and a very wet summer here in Missouri.  And while gardens need rain, they don't need THAT much rain.  We got our garden planted pretty late, waiting for it to dry up.  And even after we planted it just kept raining.  And you can't till muddy ground.  A lot of our seeds rotted in the ground due to the moisture and the seeds that did grow got crowded out by the weeds.  So, in July, we gave up and my husband plowed our garden under. 

The thing that really hurt about plowing under our garden was, we didn't have many green beans left from last year.  We eat a lot of green beans at our house.  And for those of you who say you don't like green beans, I proudly reply "you haven't tried MY green beans."  Bacon, onion and Lawry's seasoning salt, plus my home canned green beans.  Whooeeeeee!  De-LICIOUS!!!!!  Now when I say we didn't have many green beans left, we probably only have about 40 quarts.  Sounds like a lot, but believe me 40 quarts go pretty fast.

So we (and I say "we" very loosely 'cause it was actually BP, the CEO here at Down On The Farm) re-planted fall beans.  And can I just say that our fall beans did OUTSTANDING!!!  Fall beans are so much better than summertime beans.  There aren't as many weeds, aren't as many bugs, and it isn't 100 degrees in the shade when you're picking them and canning them.  The problem with fall beans is, you never know when its going to frost and if the beans aren't mature enough to pick before the frost, then you have NO BEANS!

I won't try to detail the entire canning process.  There are plenty of sites that do a much better job of that than I could ever do.  But for you non-canning folks, these pictures will give you an idea of what we did last week.  We canned 42 quarts of green beans in one night.  Our plants still have lots of beans on them, but we just don't have time to can beans AND go to Indianapolis to watch our son.  So, if it doesn't frost between now and this weekend, we'll probably pick more beans and can more beans.  Those beans sure taste good when it's cold and the snow is flying!

If you've never planted a garden and you love food, do yourself a favor and grow SOMETHING!  Get a five gallon bucket and plant a tomato plant.  Dig up a 5 foot square and plant some lettuce and onions.  There is nothing like the flavor of home grown food.  And there is a real sense of satisfaction that just does something to you when you know you are eating food you've grown yourself.  Remember God planted a garden . . . and He called it Eden!