2024 Little Easy Bean Network - Growing Heirloom Beans Of Today And Tomorrow

[heirloomgal]

I finally got my icloud issues 100% worked out! So, some pictures! I'm glad I took some tonight, becaue it gave me a chance to look back and compare. I've been feeling like everything is moving too slow, if it all, though it doesn't help we had a major heatwave (feeling like over 100 F/38 C) and it's possible that the transplants and seedlings didn't like that much. I kept everything well watered but those kinds of temps can't be easy on small plants. Anyway, they grew a bit more than I thought looking at pictures. I should change my handle name to The Impatient Gardener. Many of these were pinched at some point.

Network bean Fat Man June 14th

Fat Man June 26th, so it DID grow afterall!

Network bean Tunny.

Strangely, semi-runner Robert Hazelwood made beans before it even started to climb. It was a 'last thought' planting, maybe it was stressed, oldest leaves are a bit ragged. Plants seem healthy though and still actively growing.

Network bean Eden Valley. The bean behind it, Mazlenk something something, seems to be sporting a climbing tip....uh oh, that's a bush bean row. I could be wrong, it might be just new growth tips.

Pretty pink bloom of Etsdorfer.

Network bean Nickell is doing well.

Reisenkorn has the biggest form & leaves of all the bush beans, photo doesn't really show it but they're quite large already.

Two toned bloom on this bush bean.

Network bean Santa Maria Pinquito, I slid the cage over because of the groundhog - who seems to be gone now.

 

[Decoy1]

Lovely healthy plants.

I have grown Mazlenk Rumen Visok II and it was fully a pole bean.

 

[Neen5MI]

we make large pots of dry beans and then freeze them so they are then easy to use later on when we cook other things or if i just want some cooked beans. i can always eat those, on a hot day frozen beans are a cool snack.

because i dislike freezing in plastic or bags i use quart jars and reusable lids, leave headspace for expansion, Mom hates the bean juice (she calls it sludge! waahhh!) so i have to drain them before freezing which gives them plenty of space for expansion. if i were smart i'd take that juice out and use it in a garden... hmmm, should have been doing that the past 20 years...

bean burritos and hummus/spreads/dips/layers...

a lot of times i just add some to whatever else i'm eating as extra filler/fiber.

yesterday i put some beans in a cup, added some cheese and cream cheese spread on top and warmed it up, added hot sauce when it was done, stirred, down the hatch... will probably make a burrito later today for lunch/dinner.

to add a bit of sweet and sour effect to my burritos i like to cross hatch the top with hot sauce and then Western salad dressing (which is like a slightly spiced up version of French). i also like to use whole milk yogurt instead of sour cream on the burrito so that is on top after everything else except the dressings go on top. that's about as fancy as i get for presentation. haha!

or you could go the way of some of the Asians who put beans in ice-cream and make desserts out of them in other ways. sweet adzuki bean paste can be used in all sorts of ways, but you don't have to limit that to adzuki beans and you can try the idea with other beans. candied dried beans would probably be pretty good, could also do bbq or hot sauce or ... chocolate covered... or ...

Burritos, yes, such a staple for me that I left it off my list. But your specific treatments... YUM!

 

[heirloomgal]

Lovely healthy plants.

I have grown Mazlenk Rumen Visok II and it was fully a pole bean.

Thank you @Decoy1 ! I'm so glad you told me this, so I can do a work around! Better to know earlier than later.

 

[jbrobin09]

I cannot believe how cold this summer has been! Up until last week our average high temp was around 14C with nighttime temps in the low single digits. It’s taking forever for my direct seeded beans to germinate (I held off planting hoping for warmer temps but…) and it’s almost July so they may not ripen seeds unless we get an extended summer. Fingers crossed we get some warm (25-30C), sunny days soon!

 

[Blue-Jay]

My Summer Bean Show 2024 #4


Brazilian Bean #6 - Lima.................................Brazilian Bean #7

There will eventually be a lot of limas shown here on these various volumes of Summer Bean Show 2024.

 

[Artorius]

The first pole beans are blooming.

Rosso del Cadore



Lengua de Lobo



Some bush beans already have quite large pods, for example

Dakota Bumble

 

[flowerbug]

i have baby beans forming, about 7cm so far, but very thin. also the peas are putting on some pods.

 

[Decoy1]

Dakota Bumble looks just about ready to eat.

I grew Beurre de Rocquencourt and Tendergreen in my polytunnel, purely to get harvestable beans as easy as possible. We had our first feed yesterday.

 

[Boilergardener]

I share your reasons for growing beans! However, the growing has surpassed the eating by an impractical margin. Based on the extensive growing lists that have been shared by many, I can't be the only one with this dilemma. So, can we talk about favorite ways to eat all these beautiful beans? My current go to forms include chili, ham and bean soup, baked beans, and most recently dal makhani, an Indian lentil curry into which I substituted an arbitrary mix of my own dry bean varieties.

This may or may not be an appropriate forum to share specific recipes, but if there are broad categories of bean cuisine that I'm overlooking and should explore, I'd love a nudge in their direction

One of my favorite parts of this thread is recipes, which I don't think I ever have seen enough of! I'm interested in seeing the lentil curry recipe you have!