“I was determined to know beans.”
-Henry David Thoreau
sprouted bean in garden (click on any image to enlarge)
I don’t have nearly as many beans planted as Thoreau did in his fields near Walden Pond, but I am just as determined to learn all I can about them.
pole bean vining
From bush beans, to vining ones, they all have their day in the sun here.
blossom of Purple Queen bean
They come in all sizes and colors, and all are welcome here.
Purple Queen bean pod
While capturing these images, I saw a praying mantis on one of the bean leaves. Perhaps it was determined to know beans too?
praying mantis on bean leaf
I love beans so much. They don’t need much fertilizer. The dried variety store without any preparation. And the green ones are so delicious.
Nice bean shots. I had not heard of Purple Queen. There are so many beans out there. I cooked some European Soldier dried beans this year and loved them so much that I saved uncooked ones to plant. Right now I have Cherokee Trail of Tears, Scarlet Runner, and Blue Lake pole beans growing. Still need to plant Eye of Goat and Pencilpod Wax beans. try Native Seed Search to find some unusual beans from the American Southwest. Just about any dried bean tastes better than pinto beans. Except topiary beans. They’re pretty blah. One of these days, I’m going to try Arikara beans. They are on Slow Food’s Ark of Taste. So much to learns about beans.
I love growing beans! they don’t take too much space and are very productive so it’s always fun to harvest them. This year I’m also trying several varieties to see how they are on taste, inluding Fortex and Purple. But so far my favorite are yellow wax beans 🙂
We got Rocdor for wax beans, and Fortex is always one of my favorites. It’s such a distinctive and tasty bean.
I grew ‘purple queen’ last year for the first time. I loved the blooms, they were much prettier than other bush beans, with their purple tint. Beans have become a bit of a dirty word around here this week though. I’ve spent hours picking, shelling, blanching, and freezing favas beans! I’m definitely going to plant less of them next year. I’m actually looking forward to the summer beans though…they’re a lot less work to eat! 😉
Beans are a core crop for our base food production. Everyone loves them, they taste wonderful eaten as a fresh harvest, and they are easy to freeze and can and make good fast winter meal preparations. My bush bean patch is kind of languishing getting going (been a big cool and cloudy lately) but my pole beans are off to the races this year and looking great.
Nice bean pics Dave. I plant several varieties, including dry beans. I planted 3 new varieties this year. I had plans on planting more varieties then I did. Oh well, there is always next year.
They are great pics – i’m really enjoying watching my broad beans unfurl at the moment. I do think beans are the best to watch germinate.