Hello Again

Here I went and had another unintentional blog-cation.

We’ve been having second summer for weeks with temperatures as much as 20 degrees F above normal, whatever normal means these days. Yesterday, Saturday, was a record high of 91F/ 33C. I am grateful that today is cooler and we are getting a cold front—finally—that will tip us into more seasonal, if still a bit above average, temperatures.

This means the garden is still going, not that it is going gangbusters like in July, but every evening I go out and pick green beans and tomatoes, sometimes a newly ripe pepper or tomatillo or radish. There are a lot of carrots to pull, but I am waiting for when James is ready to make carrot soup from the roots and pesto from the tops. It has also been dry, no rain for a couple of weeks, so James and I have had to water. Our rain barrels were thankfully full to overflowing and we have yet to drain them, but we water by hand, carrying watering cans around to all the thirsty plants, and this takes time.

I still need to finish pruning the raspberries of this year’s canes. I did give the plum and bush cherries a light trim. I am still picking pod beans—so many! This is what I’ve been doing on my Sunday afternoons instead of writing a blog—shelling dry beans.

The skunk beans did amazing this year. So did the Hidasta red beans. The succotash beans didn’t do great last year so I tried them again this year. Last year was the first year I had grown them and they are pretty purple beans that look like corn kernels. This time around the vines grew tall and lush, but for all that, produced not even a pint jar of beans. I’ve decided I won’t be growing them again.

The brown resilient beans, a mixed genetic variety of bush bean developed by Carol Deppe, gave me a huge surprise. I have ben growing them for four years now and they have been scrawny but productive bush beans that survived drought and multiple rabbit attacks, living up to their resilient name. Each year as I grow them on, it has been fun to see the beans change color. Originally a medium brown, I still got plenty of those, but also started getting tan, mottled brown, white, and black beans. Well this year most of them decided to become pole beans! 

Their decision to become pole beans created a bit of wild jungle because I didn’t trellis them since they are supposed to be bush beans. The vines scrambled everywhere including wrapping themselves around and through several tomato cages and tomato plants. They climbed milkweed and sunflowers. They eventually found their way to the skunk bean and cucumber trellis where they grew so vigorously, they snapped the maple stakes I had made from branches dropped by the silver maple in the front yard. I came close to ripping the mess out in frustration until I noticed how many bean pods were on these vines, and not little pods like on their former bush bean incarnation, but long fat pods.

Now that I am able to pick them, the beans inside are pinto bean sized, and are a pretty light tan mottled with a medium brown. When they are all picked and shelled, I will likely have a quart or more from perhaps 12 plants. I am saving the biggest, fattest of these newly minted pole beans to plant next year. I am not saving any seeds from the ones that retained their bush habit because those didn’t produce all that many beans. It’s possible the bushes were overwhelmed by their aggressive siblings, but I have decided the very productive pole bean development is what I want to plant on and see what happens next year. Watch them revert to bush beans, wouldn’t that be a hoot? (The answer is no).

Every year I like to try to grow a few new-to-the-garden plants. Since I can’t grow corn because the squirrels and raccoons demolish it and rudely leave nothing for me, I thought I would try sorghum. I got a variety that is good for both syrup from the stalk and grain from the flower heads. Sorghum is a grass that looks just like a cornstalk, but the seeds don’t grow on a cob. The seeds don’t need any special processing other than winnowing, and they are big enough that this task would be easy.

I planted 15 seeds, enough, I figured, for James and I to have sorghum cereal for breakfast a couple times. They all came up and flowered. To harvest, I needed to wait until the seeds were hard enough that I couldn’t dent them with my fingernail. I waited and waited, tested and tested. And then birds ate every last seed before they were completely ripe!

I could make syrup from the stalks at least. Only when I looked up how to do it I learned I needed a roller press like a wash mangle. And then the plant liquid needs to boiled. And boiled. And boiled some more like when making maple syrup to bring out the sweet and remove a lot of the liquid to make it thick and syrupy. I might end up with a tablespoon of syrup from my 15 stalks. Too much work for not much. Needless to say, syrup is not going to happen.

There will be no more sorghum growing.

James did promise to help me, however, harvest the amaranth seeds. Amaranth seeds are so tiny that the one time I tried to harvest them for food, It took me hours to separate the chaff for what seemed like a very small return. But given the sorghum fail, I looked up more information on harvesting amaranth, and with the help of James and a fan I think we might be able to make a good enough harvest from the randomly growing self-seeded plants around the garden. I’ll let you know! If it works out, I might make a go of purposely planting some next year. Neither birds nor squirrels are interested in them, so maybe…

I can happily report that plum-sour cherry jam is delicious! It makes a pink jam that at first glance might make a person wonder, but the taste—yum! I can also happily report that plum-elderberry jam is delicious. This jam is dark purple, though a bit lighter than straight up elderberry, and the plums compliment the more astringent elderberry quite nicely without any added sugar. It makes for a mild, somewhat earthy-flavored jam. We will definitely make more of both next year.

In addition to the garden and the usual everyday of work and life, James and I have been attending a weekly Beloved Community Circle cohort training. There are ten people from our sangha who decided we wanted to practice the engaged part of our engaged Buddhist tradition, and so formed a Beloved Community Circle. We’ve been meeting once a month since May, getting to know each other, building our relationships, deeply sharing and listening.

When the organization that provides training and support for Beloved Community Circles announced they were doing a 9-week training, James and I signed up. So far there have been five Zoom training meetings and I have learned so much about community building from each one. I am taking detailed notes and sharing them with my own Circle because James and I were the only ones who were able to make the commitment for the training.

What is a Beloved Community Circle, you ask? In case you don’t want to click through to find out more information, it is, in brief, a close-knit group working in community towards climate and racial justice, grounded in nonviolence, emotional healing, spiritual practice, and mindful action. There are Circles all a round the world. There are about 50 people in the training court from across the United States and the world. Some, like James and I, are members of new Circles, others are taking the training in order to start Circles in their area.

Creating a close-knit community like this is challenging and rewarding work. My Circle is wonderfully diverse in age, gender, background, ethnicity, and class. We have not done any group actions yet; we are still in the building phase which is engaged action all on it’s own given how individualistic and divided the U.S. and the world is these days. Not surprisingly, most of us have a deep interest in care taking/ protecting people/living beings. I personally want to do care taking work within the area of building alternatives, but we’ll see what eventually arises from the group.

I’ve also been doing lots of reading and listening and hope to share some of that with you next week. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and enjoy a little music from a wild mushroom. Apparently mushroom music is a thing!

https://youtu.be/NbP2DgDp890

#amaranth #BelovedCommunityCircle #brownResilientBeans #CarolDeppe #dryBeans #mushroomMusic #plumElderberryJam #plumSourCherryJam #poleBeans #secondSummer #sorghum

Intimations of Things to Come

Hello Friends!

The military continues to occupy Washington, D.C. but not without valiant resistance. The President’s claims that the occupation is due to high crime rates is a big fat lie. There are numbers and reports from reliable sources that all indicate crime rates are dropping. Not coincidentally, the President threatens to send the National Guard to blue states and cities, when still other reliable sources of information show that crime rates in Republican Red versus Democrat Blue states are higher. One of the reports is even on Congress’s own website! Forbes goes to into a bit of detail about the difference in crime rates that basically boils down to guns. Repubicans who claim to be so concerned about crime should look at their own states and cities, because the numbers show that from 2000 to 2020, murder rates were 12% higher in Trump-voting states.

Meanwhile, my city continues to mourn those murdered and injured in the Annunciation shooting last week. My heart is broken over it and I sobbed yesterday even though I only know someone who knows someone with kids who go there. The Democrats in the Minnesota State legislature are putting forward bills to ban assault weapons in the state, but the legislature is so evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans that the ban is not likely to pass. How ridiculous is that? How many children have to die before the Republicans wake up and understand that more guns only makes the problem worse?

If it weren’t for my meditation practice, my sangha, and the garden, I’m not sure I’d be able to find any sort of equanimity and grounding to keep me from despair.

This week the weather turned chilly, intimations of things to come. Temperatures will warm back up this week, and I am glad for it because I have tomatoes and peppers out in the garden that are trying to get ripe.

I opened one of the jars of rhubarb-aronia jam James canned last weekend, or as James has dubbed it, “rhubronia”:

Not only is it pretty with a wonderful consistency (no pectin needed), it tastes divine. There is a little tart rhubarb tang tempered by the astringent earthiness of the aronia berries. Here is the recipe. James made the refrigerator jam recipe but only used about a quarter of a cup of sugar and it was just right for my liking. This will definitely become part of the yearly jam making lineup!

We still have some plums and I suggested James make a plum-sour cherry jam. I think that would be a tasty combination. And I have yet to try the plum-elderberry jam. Stay tuned.

The last couple of weekends I have been out picking dry bean pods. The Hidasta red beans did so much better this year than last year and I will definitely grow them again. The black-eyed peas that were flattened in a severe thunderstorm in August revived and are covered in long, thin pea pods that are starting to dry out. The skunk beans are magnificent. Not only are they pretty, they are big, substantial beans that are fantastic as baked beans and in a thick stew.

Beans are so easy to grow and save, but I love them most for their variety. The only trouble when shelling them is trying to keep them from becoming projectiles shooting across the kitchen when I crack open the dry pods.

Just when I think I’ve figured out how to unzip a particular variety of bean pod without sending them skittering across the floor and under the refrigerator, I get a pod that proves me wrong, and before I know it beans are ricocheting off tables and cabinets and disappearing. That’s one reason I like big beans so much. They are easier to find and pick up off the floor. The black-eyed peas are little and I will discover a few that went missing sometime in December. That’s all part of the fun though.

Marlon the Contender peach tree did not flower this year. It was disappointing since they had fruit when we welcomed them to the garden last year. All the fruit dropped off before getting ripe, not a surprise given the trauma of being transplanted, but I hoped this year there would be some fruit. Nope. Instead, Marlon has concentrated on growing.

They were about six feet/2 m tall when we brought them home. After this summer’s growth spurt, they are over 10 feet/3 m tall!

One of the medicinal herbs I added to the herb spiral this year is boneset. The plant likes their location and has grown beautifully. And the white flowers are lovely.

Boneset is traditionally used for, among other things, colds and flu. It is also an anti-inflammatory, and can be used for joint pain. I have not harvested any this year to save for any remedies. I wasn’t expecting the plant to grow so well the first year. They are perennial so will be back next year, at which time I will feel pretty good about using their gifts.

I planted celosia this year on the premise that the flowers are edible and make a pretty and tasty pink tea. They also allegedly are attractive to pollinators.

The flowers are pretty. I never made tea. I have not seen a single pollinator visiting the flowers. I haven’t decided if I will grow them again next year.

I did make some borage tea because it was supposed to be refreshing with its cucumber-flavor. The tea definitely tastes like cucumber. I poured it out after a few sips though because my mouth started to go numb. That is not supposed to happen, so I suspect I am a bit allergic to it and so will not be growing it again.

I also made wild bergamot tea, also purportedly refreshing. I should have known better than to not flavor it with anything else because the plant can be used as an oregano substitute, which we have done with good results. I don’t know why I was surprised to take a sip of the tea and discover that it tastes like oregano! I like oregano as a flavor in sauces and other dishes, but oregano flavored tea? Uh, no.

You never know until you try something how it might turn out. All part of the adventure!

I will make a valiant attempt to catch up on comments and blog visiting in the coming days. Take care of yourselves and take time to feel the breeze, watch a bee on a flower, and touch the earth with your bare skin.

#Annunciation #blackEyedPeas #boneset #borageTea #celosia #crimeRates #dryBeans #guns #HidastaRed #Marlon #rhubarbAroniaJam #skunkBeans #WashingtonDC #wildBergamotTea

#Cooking #DryBeans #KitchenQuestions

I'm no novice, cooking for over 55 years, for home and work, but this stumped me.

I want to eat more beans, so I made a small pot of "baked beans", not following any recipie and making healthy choices for flavors--no bacon, for example.

Had a cup of pinto beans, soaked overnight, then cooked them in broth and tomato. They swelled up nicely. But those little devils never got soft. I didn't expect baked beans like kidney brains make. But these simmered over 14 hours in total, chewable but firm.

Any ideas? Are pinto beans that different? They are still good, just not as soft as I thought they'd be.

This is most of my harvest of soup peas from a tiny 4' x 4' plot I planted this spring. I haven't eaten any yet, but I understand you eat them like chickpeas.

I threshed and winnowed them on this trashcan lid, it was quite easy to break up the pods and blow away the chaff. I could see doing it on a tarp would be a good method for a larger crop.

I was a dummy and planted two varieties of peas side by side (the brown ones are the soup peas, the white are actually green peas used for fresh eating) not realizing they would grow into a tangle of vines and have to be harvested together, and they probably hybridized so the next generation won't be entirely predictable. Oh well! If they're good eating, I'll buy new seeds for next year.
#GrowYourOwn #Gardening #drybeans

Hey there, fellow Mastodonians! In December I did an informal #JoinIn where I explained how to make Swedish #pepparkakor. Would anyone be interested if I were to do another one explaining how to #cook #DryBeans from scratch, possibly with a ham bone thrown in?

IMO, the skill of cooking and spicing up dry beans can help you get through hard times. It's important to eat well when money is tight, and knowing how to cook from scratch certainly helps make that easier.