Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Garden Surprises

If there's one thing I can say about my garden, it can always surprise me. - David Hobson, The Mad Gardener

Yesterday I went out into the garden and look what I found....
The very first tomatoes out of the garden which were quickly disposed of! These are Reisentraube plants which Cyndy gave me. Soon we will have more than we can eat, I hope.

I planted some kolrabi and turnip seeds and weeded the carrots, radish and kale while the ground was wet and letting me take them out without a struggle. When the small garden had dried enough that I could get to them I went to check the beans. This year I planted Cherokee Wax Beans to use as a dry bean. Now I have been watching them and some of the flowers were purple and some white. Now I have to say these are verrrry prolific this year but (you know there is always a but) here is what I am getting....

Some of the beans look like regular green beans, some look like the yellow wax bean which is the Cherokee Wax, and some of them are flat green beans. These are the only beans in that garden. The other garden is 200+ yards away. So I go on the internet to read more about this bean and here is what I get-

58 days. Phaseolus vulgaris. Bush type plant produces excellent yields of 6" long yellow wax beans. Beans are black.

Tasty, string less 6 inch pods are light yellow in color and straight. Upright plants are productive even in adverse weather.

Phaseolus vugaris 18-24 in. Tender and stringless in all stages. Good soup bean. Vines bear straight, flat, 6-7 inch deep- golden-yellow pods. (shows dried inside beans as red)

CHEROKEE WAX hardy 1 ½ foot plants will reliably produce a stringless crop of oval, golden yellow beans. A vigorous, heavy yielding variety.

There seems to be some discrepancy in the color of the dried bean (black or red). All say the plants are 1 1/2 - 2 feet tall (some of mine are vining to 6 feet). But they all say 6 inch yellow pods so where are the green ones coming from. At first I thought maybe they started green and turned to yellow but no the small green are green and the small yellow are yellow. Now I bought these from a very reputable seed company and now I need to contact them and see if anybody else is having this problem.

In the larger garden I picked zucchini. I made some fried zucchini and froze some. I also got 1/2 a shopping bag of broccoli and 1/3 of a shopping bag of green beans which I have to process today. The cucumbers are right around the corner.

And I also was able to produce this yesterday, 175 yards of two ply finn. All in all a good day.

1 comment:

cyndy said...

Hooray! Red ones in July!! It is a first for me, and mine didn't even make it to a plate for a photo! Those Reisentraubes are so good! I love those little points at the tips!

Your yarn also looks yummy- will you be setting some aside for a dye bath?