Happy Harvest Monday everyone! I feel completely out of sync with my routine having been away for nine days during this busy holiday season and I'm trying to get it together again with Christmas right around the corner. Hope I don't have to travel during the holiday season again anytime soon! Still, it was wonderful to see my older son after the better part of a year since he moved away from here. Lookin' like a happy mom! And look at all of that green!
Well, from 70 plus degrees Florida back to 30 degrees Connecticut has brought me face to face with what's left of the harvest, which isn't much. I still have carrots in the ground and they haven't been mulched. But I was able to harvest a handful of bite-sized ones this week which were very sweet eating. Most of them ended up in a kettle of split pea soup.
This may well be the last harvest of the season for me. I still have more carrots out there, as well as some kale and Brussels sprouts, but they are all looking the worse for wear. Time to hunker down for the winter and dream of next year's crops. But who knows, maybe I'll get a few more bits out of the garden yet.
In the picture above are my dried scarlet runner beans. The photo isn't the clearest in the world, but the beans really are pretty. When cooked they are very "beefy" and filling. Now that I've admired them enough I plan to soak and boil them like I do with all the dried beans I purchase, then freeze in 2 cup portions, ready to use in any bean recipe I choose. I prefer this to buying canned beans because they are not loaded with sodium prepared this way, are a lot cheaper and once frozen, they are just as convenient.
That's it for this week's Harvest Monday report which is hosted by
Daphne's Dandelions each week. Time to get inspiration from the southern hemisphere!
That has got to be a shock, going from Florida to Connecticut! Runner beans are delicious, whether Scarlet, or white, or brown, I haven't tried a variety yet that I don't like.
ReplyDeleteIt was, Michelle! Hood thing I'm a yankee at heart! This is my first experience with runner beans and surely not the last!
DeleteSo glad to hear you had a great visit with your son. I have 2 children on the mainland in Tennessee for college. Unfortunately I will have to wait until Summer to see them. Maybe next Christmas I will get to have them here though. Those carrots DO look tasty!!
ReplyDeleteIt is tough when your kids are far away! I envy my friends whose grown kids live near them.
DeleteCarrots after the frost are so sweet, that's a nice pile you got there. I find homegrown dried beans cooked faster than store bought dried beans.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip about the beans Norma, I'll keep a close watch when I cook them!
DeleteI so love beans. I'm cooking up some black beans for enchiladas tonight. I think even though I grew so many I might have to buy some beans this year. But we will see. I'm not there yet. I've still got jars full of them. And aren't runner beans just the prettiest bean known to man. I still have some in a jar from a few years ago because I don't want to eat them. They are too pretty to look at.
ReplyDeleteThey really are beautiful Daphne! This is the first time I've ever grown my own beans to dry and wish I'd grown more!
ReplyDelete