Our green beans are pumping out at max capacity in the garden, it's great!
Trellis Design
We have been very lucky this year to not have much of a pest problem and that our new trellis design has held up and worked just as planned.
We used 8 foot tall T posts; one at each end of the row and another in the middle. The average span from post-to-post is around 10 feet. It's a little bit of a stretch, but has worked out okay so far this year. Next year we're going to buy more T posts to reduce the span between posts. For connecting the posts together, we used galvanized electric fence wire and did three horizontal runs down the rows. One at the top, middle, and bottom of the post. We then ran jute twine up and down the wires to give a place for the beans to climb and attach themselves to.
Tell Me 'Bout Yo Beans!
We grew a variety called Greasy Beans this year. We also grew them last year and these are seeds from that crop. If you've never heard of this variety or tried them you are sorely missing out! These beans are hearty, easy to string, and produce very well. Oh.. and they taste fantastic!
Preserving the Goodness
We've had two "pickings" so far this season from the beans. It looks like we'll get another one, maybe two more! The first picking gave us 11 pounds of beans, and the second gave 18 pounds.
Badda-Bean, Badda-Boom!
We have been canning the beans and have about 17 quarts to date. Our recipe is simple. Pack the beans into the jars, add 1 teaspoon of salt, fill with boiling water, then process in a pressure canner for 25 minutes.
Canned Beauty!
Fresh from the pressure canner in the Outdoor Kitchen. It doesn't get much better than that!
See you in the comments below, and on the next post!
Until next time, @greenacrehome
Dang! That's a nice setup!
If I get the chance, I'm going to harvest what little tiny potatoes from the contianers I have and see if I can start some late peas. It should be warm until November here.
Ooh my favourite vegetables!
What do you do with the canned beans? Are they still nice and crunchy when opened?
We eat them! :-) They are not crispy crunchy, but relatively as good as when we cook them fresh. When it's the middle of winter or not bean season they're great to have. Plus we know exactly what is in our canned food! Thanks
I love this attitude to food. I also try to make as much as I can from scratch. I hate to eat food where I have no idea what it's contents are!
Love your blog, love your posts, keep on keeping on! 🤘🏽 🤘🏽 🤘🏽
Thank you! Much appreciated. If you like homesteading, come check out our new slack community called steemithomesteaders.slack.com! Here's a link to the announcement post with signup info and more details: https://steemit.com/steemithomesteaders/@greenacrehome/announcement-steemithomesteaders-slack-community
Great info, I did my first ever garden this year, and although I've had good results, I intend on implementing some of your techniques next year.
Have you ever used a food dryer? If so how does it compare to canning
Awesome! Glad to hear showing our garden has helped to inspire. I have a dehydrator but mainly use it for jerky and herb drying.
Dehydrating tends to concentrate the flavors of the product being dried. Canning tends to lose texture but much of the jar is water or syrup. With dehydrating storage can be easier but you have to be more aware of the moisture levels of the storage where as the canning jars just go on the shelf.
Appreciate the input
You may be interested in joining our new SteemitHomesteaders slack community? Here's the announcement post with details and signup invitation link: https://steemit.com/steemithomesteaders/@greenacrehome/announcement-steemithomesteaders-slack-community
Nice looking beans. I only grow bush beans anymore as the runners took over my garden. At the moment I have 27 lbs of the 50 I need for my first order next week. We have made dilly beans with a bunch of ours over the years. It helps to have the fillet beans for dilly as they are thin and straight and you can fit a bunch whole in a quart jar.
We're going to try dilly beans with our next picking. Any good recipes or tips? :-) Also, check out my newest post about SteemitHomesteaders.slack.com Thanks
Here is the recipe that we use for pickling everything.
https://steemit.com/gardening/@flemingfarm/simple-pickling-recipe-use-for-all-your-pickling-needs
Best tip for beans is to try and use straight ones, and pack them into the jar nice and tight.
Thank you!!!!!! I sent this to my wife. :-)
You may be interested in joining our new SteemitHomesteaders slack community? Here's the announcement post with details and signup invitation link: https://steemit.com/steemithomesteaders/@greenacrehome/announcement-steemithomesteaders-slack-community
This post received a 2.6% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @greenacrehome! For more information, click here!
I thought that I recognized your name...I am already following you from your post "Year of the Turtle." I love your before and after pictures and I love green beans. And you can them too; lucky you. The fruits of your labor. Living off of the land all year round. Good for you! :)
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who does that--forgetting my own follows! :-) Thanks @whatisnew
Wowzers! Thats a lot of beans! Strange name though....are they a bit oily?
I think it's because they're slightly shiny. I've heard tell, that this variety is specific or original to our area of the Appalachian Mountains. Either way, they're the best tasting bean I've had! We're going to expand even more for next year's garden.
Your beans look amazing! I got mexican bean beetle this year 😭 But maybe I'll plant a second crop.
We've skirted the pests a good bit this year on the beans... maybe it's grace for our continued assault on Tomatoes of the ground hogs! We've relocated 4 this year alone, and destroyed 2 burrows!