Some beany thoughts this evening
Lima beans. Should I ever grow them again? This year would be my 4th try. And the results were meager, just like ever other time. Jackson Wonder, Christmas and Ping. None produced enough to make the space they took up worthwhile. I've heard it all when it comes to these limas; a friend down south says her season is too short, another friend down south says they do great for her, another friend way North says her summers are too hot for them to prosper.
Cowpeas, two tries, modest results as well. I wonder how many trials does a variety require before you can really say I gave it a shot. I can't complain, but my production was down this year compared to last year. I think I need to not be so quick to stick plants & seeds in the ground in late May. It can actually work against me. Gonna need self discipline to not fall for that late May reliable hot spell next year.
BUT I did some counting tonight and saw that I added 81 new varieties of beans to my collection this year! It isn't tons of seed for each, but it's a start! Now I'm curious to see how many I have altogether!
Wow, from 1981! What an unusual surprise!
Do you ever get aphids on the favas?
These recipes remind me of the 'canned beans' in Quebec grocery stores, many of which have straight up pork fat listed as an ingredient.
Yes, but I can't tell that they do any real damage. A bigger problem for me is that I can only grow them for seed in my cold gardens. At home and in the community garden they get some sort of fungus.
When I flipped through the booklet, I thought..this feels like my childhood. It was! I was 5 then, and all the mothers cooked from the same recipe books.
Well, the booklet is from Canada, so most likely you ate something cooked from it. On the archive site there is another booklet from the US, wartime I think. If you want to browse the books there, here is the link Internet Archive cookbooks. Some of the books are out of copyright, or have never had any in the US, so you can download a copy of the book. Others, if you join the Internet Archive, you can check them out as a library book. Of course, book publishers are suing them over this. I'll save my rant about this for other forums.
You might have better luck with different varieties. "Sieva" (a.k.a. "Carolina") is a short-season pole lima. It is the only pole lima I can direct seed with a reasonable chance of success. Started as transplants, it might make it in your climate... and in my garden, it tolerated cool weather. Small white seeds in huge numbers. "Henderson" bush lima is another short-season lima. I grow a black-seeded bush lima, "Cave Dweller Black", which had a DTM of 82 days here.Lima beans. Should I ever grow them again? This year would be my 4th try. And the results were meager, just like ever other time. Jackson Wonder, Christmas and Ping. None produced enough to make the space they took up worthwhile. I've heard it all when it comes to these limas; a friend down south says her season is too short, another friend down south says they do great for her, another friend way North says her summers are too hot for them to prosper.
@heirloomgal , I can't remember if I sent you the two Minnesota varieties? "MN 13" and "MN 150" should both mature where you are. Both are true bush habit, so they don't waste time or energy growing vines. I used to grow an heirloom, "Fagiolino Dolico Veneto", that was a black eyed pea with a very short DTM... but so many other SSE members were growing it, I bumped it down in priority, and haven't grown it since 2012.
Not sure I'll ever get back to it now. I'll do a germination test, and could send you some seed if good... if not, its into the bean pot.
Wow, it actually has recipes for soybeans!
I've got to try those.
