Monday, October 28, 2013

Harvest Monday October 28th, 2013

Did you know I've never had a fresh fig before? Well except at a restaurant. Now I've got to figure out what to do with them. the first I ate with some cheese. I'd like to cook the other three, but not sure about recipes. I guess I'll have to look some up.

I picked the first of the fall beans and maybe the last. There have been three frosts in the neighborhood this last week. For some reason my garden hasn't frosted over. Even when we got down to 30F. Not that I'm complaining. The beans are still alive. Tonight is supposed to be in the 20Fs. I can't imagine they will survive that.

I picked all my celery and froze it for the winter. The bucket of greens went into the compost pile. The cleaned up celery in the basket got weighed.

But today is mostly about my seed harvest. I winnowed and weighed my coriander and dill seed this week. And the dried beans were all dry and ready to weigh.

These are all the beans I picked this year (well the ones I haven't eaten already). Some were weighed in other weeks. But it is my dried bean stock for the winter. As you can see I've picked out the seeds for next year already. From left to right I have: Cherokee Trail of Tears black beans (first two jars), Jacob's Cattle, Mexican Pinto, Tigers Eye, and Tarbais. The last jar is also from Tarbais, but it had obviously crossed with another bean. I'm saving only the most perfectly Tarbais like beans for seed for next year.

Bean yield was down this year. I only got about 2/3rds of what I normally get. I always have trouble with rust here, but I had much more trouble than usual. I blame that on my experiment. I really like pole beans better than bush beans. They produce about three times as much in a given area. Though to be fair they do take the spot for the whole year, where bush beans could have a fall crop grow after them. So this year I tried to grow two rows of pole beans along the bed. One in front and one in back. But it just didn't give them enough airflow. So I'm going to have to go back to the chalkboard. I'm going to redo the rotation schedule for next year and see if I can get in more pole beans or not. The problem is that I can't grow summer crops at their foot as they block the sun too much. I wish my beds went east to west like at my last house. Then I could put the pole beans on the north side and not block anything. But the beds are square to the house and south is directly in the corner. The best I can do is plant them on the northwest side of the bed.

Yields lbs/sqft 2013 2012 2011
Trail of Tears 0.20 0.27 0.38
Tarbais 0.17 0.37 0.37
Mexican Pinto 0.17 na 0.31
Tiger Eye 0.04 0.10 na
Jacobs Cattle 0.070.09 na

You can tell from the above chart that dried bean yields are not very high in general. It isn't a crop people usually plant as your value per square foot is pretty low. It is a fun crop though and something that is easily stored over the winter. I even grew them at my last house where I was pressed for space (though not nearly as many).

  • Alliums 1.96 lbs
  • Beans 4.71 lbs
  • Greens 1.78 lbs
  • Herbs 0.41 lbs
  • Weekly Tally 26.25 lbs
  • Yearly Tally 473.86 lbs, $942.84

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

23 comments:

  1. You got figs from your tree, congrats. They are so pretty, what is the variety? Both the Cherokee Trail of Tears and Jacob's Cattle appear to be black beans, is there a difference in taste and texture?

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    1. The figs are Brown Turkey. I also have a Paradisio, but it seems a bit later. I do have one that looks like it is ripening, but with the cold weather it might not happen.

      The first two jars are both Trail of Tears. Jacobs Cattle is the spotted one.

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  2. Your figs are gorgeous! I have only eaten them fresh from a tree a long time ago. Love the dried beans. A lot of meals can be produced with just a small amount of beans.

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  3. You're so right about shelling beans having a poor Value for Space Rating, but dried beans are nice (and keep well) so still think it's worth growing them. Hope the figs are/were nice!

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  4. I've never tasted a fresh fig, but remember eating dried figs and I love it!

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  5. Nice figs! When we moved to Vermont, I made the mistake of trying to overwinter them in our enclosed back porch. The Vermont winter laughed. I bought 3 new plants when we moved back to MA and plan to keep them in the garage though I'd like to plant an extra hardy variety in the ground close to the house and see how it fairs.

    PS - that's a lot of beans!

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    1. Wow haven't heard from you in ages Thomas. I insulate my fig trees in the ground. Last year I used a tarp and some leaves. I'd like to get some better insulation this year though.

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  6. Your celery has an interesting purple hue - I've never seen that before. Your dried beans are always really impressive. You might be disappointed in the quantity, but that seems huge to me!

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  7. A very nice harvest. I've only tried dried beans once with limited results, I'd really like to add them to our garden some time! We had frost every night last week so if it isn't frost hardy it's dead in our garden!!

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  8. I got my first ripe figs this week also, although I didn't photograph or tally them. I love the variety of colors in your beans, this year I have two white beans and a beige/brown bean, not very colorful.

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  9. Beautiful figs! My fig trees are still green this time of year (which is quite unusual) and we've picked several pounds off the trees but never got around to take pictures.

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  10. The fresh figs are precious enough just to be enjoyed on their own! Am always envious of your dried beans, still a beautiful harvest, especially given your space restrictions.

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  11. I love dried beans but I don't tend to devote much space to them as you say they are hard to justify from a value perspective but they are beautiful. What I tend to do is let some of the green bean crops mature and use those as dried beans - that way I can have a little bit of both. Not ideal but effective.

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  12. Like Liz I love your beans. They look so beautiful and shiny and full of promise, either for eating over winter or for re-planting. I have some borlotti in and some haricot for planting later.

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  13. Your figs look great! When you have a glut I would highly recommend fig chutney flavoured with orange juice, cinnamon and coriander seed. Delicious! Your beans look fab! I just sowed mine for green picking and keeping (yin yang beans and borlotti) this weekend so I am hopeful for a crop as good as yours.

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  14. Your dog looks like he/she might like to try your celery! I have eaten dried figs before. Wonder if you could do that? I have been putting the cover over the cold frame. Last night it was suppose to be higher than 32 degrees so I didn't and we had a frost! Lettuce looked kind of limp but maybe they will pop back! I think you are getting colder faster than us! Nice seed harvest!! Nancy

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  15. When we lived in Raleigh I had a Brown Turkey fig in the front yard. Most of the figs never made it to the front door - eaten on the sidewalk between the tree & door.

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  16. Figs are great just off the tree, but you might also want to consider tossing them in a salad with some goat's cheese, or making fig jam or chutney. I've always wanted a fig tree of my own, but round here they're pretty easy to scavenge (they're often planted in public places or hang over people's back fences) so I seldom miss out entirely :)

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  17. Wow the beans look beautiful in their jars ready for storing. Pity you didn't get as many as usual. Hope you enjoyed the figs and found something nice to do with them. When you have a few more I highly recommend fig and orange jam or a nice savoury fig jam to use with cheese.

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  18. Figs look beautiful!! How do they taste? We had fig plants when I was little and tried tasting it before it ripened and all I can remember is lots of tiny seeds and no taste:) I have tastes figs in newton's figs and like them that way :)

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    1. I don't know how to describe them. They aren't like any other fruit I've had. And they don't taste like fig newtons.

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  19. I confess I haven't been too adventurous with my figs. And I wouldn't know how to describe them either. I have wrapped them in prosciutto and broiled them, but I think that overwhelmed the delicate fig taste. I did make some fig preserves that were very tasty. This year I have been drying most of the ones we don't eat fresh.

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  20. Figs! You're so lucky. Quick, find some more and make a batch of fig jam. It will change your life.

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