Have you ever made homegrown dried beans? It’s a lengthy and annoying process, in my opinion. I do it every year because I just can’t stand to waste. Here’s how it goes: I try to pick fresh green beans I grow every few days. We like the little sweet ones. Beans are prolific. The bright green leave camouflage the slender green sickles. I miss many that then grow too big for us to enjoy fresh. [...]

We’re harvesting beans, baskets of beautiful yellow and purple striped beans. These heirloom dragon tongue beans are a bush bean, meaning they do not need to be trellised.  They grow down towards the soil hiding under wide umbrella leaves. The beans can be cooked fresh.  Sadly they lose their beautiful coloration, cooking to a light yellow color.  They have a buttery taste with a crisp texture, making them delicious steamed or added to stir fries. [...]

Tuesday night I cooked the best beans and rice ever. I’m sure it’s the best because I grew the beans, picked the beans, dried the beans, and finally cooked them.  Do you know how many fresh beans it takes to make a cup of dried beans? Now I do and it’s a LOT. I didn’t use a recipe (I rarely do) but here’s what I can recall: Have you ever worked so hard in the [...]

No matter which way you plant them, seeds grow with leaves up and roots underground.  Climbers like ivy, always reach for the top of a tree. Green beans always climb up their support, never down.  This one in my garden was heading down a support but changed direction and is now growing right back up on top of itself. It’s an effect called gravitropism, or tropism. The plant hormone auxin causes plants to repspond to [...]