Kidney beans - the one on the left is not dehydrated yet, the one on the right was dried out by the sun.
On Friday we pulled up all of the bean plants at the farm. As you may recall, at their peak we were harvesting bins of green, yellow, purple and dragon beans for market every Monday and Thursday. And in July, because of poor germination, we replanted a number of bean plats to supplement our harvest six weeks later, starting in September.
Well the plants had seen there day and during our last harvest we literally ripped the plants out of the ground and stripped them of all there beans. Since we also grow these plants in a plastic mulch with a drip line underneath for irrigation (by the way we stopped irrigating the farm about 2-3 weeks ago), this too had to be cleaned up and sorted for the dump. That same day, Kevin mowed and tilled the front field to get it ready for winter. The only crops that remain in the front field that used to be filled with garlic, corn, cauliflower, beans, cabbage, broccoli and kohlrabi are some chard, collard and kale plants.
The more exciting bean harvest however was from the 'my field'. In the field that was assigned to me we have been growing drying beans all summer long. We planted the beans from seed in June, and then let the plants grow and dry out until now - no maintenance, other than a bit of weeding, was needed. Here too we ripped the plants out of the ground and stripped them of their beans. You had to be more careful with the harvest though because the pods were so dry that bean would be flying everywhere. Also, not all of the bean pods did dry out. Those that 'beaned out' but were still green were ok to take, because the beans can be air dried for storage. Those that had not 'beaned out' were left on the plant.
We grew four types of drying beans, and this year was the first attempt at growing these crops - kidney beans, black turtle beans, pinto beans and cowpeas.
Well the plants had seen there day and during our last harvest we literally ripped the plants out of the ground and stripped them of all there beans. Since we also grow these plants in a plastic mulch with a drip line underneath for irrigation (by the way we stopped irrigating the farm about 2-3 weeks ago), this too had to be cleaned up and sorted for the dump. That same day, Kevin mowed and tilled the front field to get it ready for winter. The only crops that remain in the front field that used to be filled with garlic, corn, cauliflower, beans, cabbage, broccoli and kohlrabi are some chard, collard and kale plants.
The more exciting bean harvest however was from the 'my field'. In the field that was assigned to me we have been growing drying beans all summer long. We planted the beans from seed in June, and then let the plants grow and dry out until now - no maintenance, other than a bit of weeding, was needed. Here too we ripped the plants out of the ground and stripped them of their beans. You had to be more careful with the harvest though because the pods were so dry that bean would be flying everywhere. Also, not all of the bean pods did dry out. Those that 'beaned out' but were still green were ok to take, because the beans can be air dried for storage. Those that had not 'beaned out' were left on the plant.
We grew four types of drying beans, and this year was the first attempt at growing these crops - kidney beans, black turtle beans, pinto beans and cowpeas.
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