Fall Green Beans

Central Missouri experienced a drought in 2012 the likes of which I've never seen in my lifetime.  The drought not only affected our pastures, but it affected our garden. 

We usually have a very large garden and we do lots of canning and freezing.  We can homemade salsa, we can green beans, we freeze corn, and I make apple butter and several different kinds of jams and jellies.

But this year our garden just burnt up. We didn't freeze any corn, we didn't make any salsa, and we had no summertime green beans.  However, my husband did plant some fall green beans and they turned out GREAT!

 

Frankly I would rather can fall beans than summertime beans.  The main reason is a very selfish one.  IT IS SO HOT IN THE SUMMERTIME THAT IT IS MISERABLE TO PICK THE BEANS!

 

The second (and much less selfish) reason is that fall beans turn out better (in my opinion).  You don't have as many bugs in the fall, so the beans have fewer bug bites. 

 

Unfortunately, our fall beans fell victim to an early October frost (one of the big drawbacks of depending on fall green beans for canning) so we were only able to can 52 quarts.  We usually can around 150 quarts, so 52 quarts won't last very long here at Down On The Farm.

 

I have to admit, I am holding onto those 52 quarts of canned green beans like they are GOLD and I've been feeding my family store bought canned green beans.  I know that may seem silly to you, but the home canned green beans are so much better, I hate to run out!  Don't worry, I think I only have 2 or 3 more cans of "store bought" green beans left in the pantry, and then I'll start using my home canned green beans.

 

Praying that next summer our garden does much better and that next summer isn't nearly as hot and dry as what we had last year.

 

So tell me, do you ever hesitate to eat the fruits of your labor like me?  Do you "hoard" your homecanned items?  Do you save them back or just go ahead and eat them like they will last forever?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

 

Blessings to you!!