Second dry bean harvest

A week ago I pulled out the rest of the dry beans: the Black Coco variety, which grows well here and which makes good black bean soup. About 4 quarts from four rows, an average yield. I left them in longer than I should have, because a number of other things took priority; and when I pulled them out the pods had already started to mold and mildew from the September rains. But they were dry, and after drying them further last week I decided to thresh them, which I did today by the usual method, holding them by their stems a few at a time and banging them around inside a clean metal garbage can, then winnowing them by pouring them out of the can into the cap. The Black Coco shell easily, but the shells break off too easily from the vines, and the result is that many go into the can along with the beans, and they have to be gotten out by hand. The soybeans never came to term, and the rabbit was joined by deer a couple of weeks ago, so that many of the late crops are munched out for the first time in many years--the brussels sprouts, for instance. Tomatoes, eggplant and peppers are covered with agribon, and that keeps the deer out as well. Expecting a lot of rain this weekend, so I dug out almost all the rest of the potatoes. A small yield this year, as the three weeks without rain came at just the wrong time for them, when they were flowering and setting up. So they are small potatoes. The second crop of lettuce and spinach grows very slowly and it will be interesting to see if they size up sufficiently before the first hard freeze, which can come as early as October or as late as November.

First dry bean harvest

With tropical storm Hannah approaching, I wanted to make sure to pull out as many dry beans as had lost all or nearly all of their leaves. September's rains, usually from storms like this that slide northeast up the coast, cause the beans to fall over onto the ground and mold, which is another reason to plant early varieties. The Jacob's Cattle Gasless and the Light Red Kidney beans had lost all of their leaves, save a few plants that had a few left, and so on Friday I pulled them out, bunched them up, and put them in carts under cover in the barn. This morning as the rains continued and the wind blew, I hung them on strings in the loft. It was quite a good yield, particularly compared with two years ago when I planted dry beans in this garden. The buckwheat that grew there last year choked out the weeds, and the chicken manure that I worked into the soil at the beginning of the season gave the plants just enough nitrogen. I should lime the soil with wood ashes over the winter. The Black Coco dry beans had to stay in, for the storm last night and this morning that dumped four inches of rain here, causing minor flooding, with the wind blowing down some of the apples, particularly the Red Astrachan, and blowing a few shingles off the roof of the house as well.

Garden Report: Early September

The rabbit has fairly gotten to all the bean leaves in the garden by the old store, but a few of the edamame beans are coming on anyway, so I've left them. The patch with the Hutterite beans was not coming on, so I tilled them into the ground and planted a cover crop of oats and clover a few days ago. I pulled the onions and they are curing in the sun on the porch; I tilled that area and planted winter lettuce, spinach, and other greens. I will try to winter over some through December if possible. The yellow onions were large and the yield excellent; red less so. I'd planted them (from sets) a little farther apart this year and that may have helped them size up. The slicing tomatoes are ripening well, but a late blight has overcome the paste tomatoes. And so there will not be much in the way of tomato puree this year unless I use the slicers for that, which I think I will do. The leaves of the brussels sprouts were also mostly eaten by the rabbit, which had the effect of bringing on the sprouts themselves too soon; I'm watching them though to see. Cabbages have been ready; this was an early red variety. In the garden down to the Scotts' the beans did well and those to the back of the garden are drying with their leaves mostly off; I should be harvesting these and hanging them up in the barn soon.

Apple Report

The weeks of drought had come to an end, and the rains came off and on for the next few weeks, enough to bulk up the apples. They are a little more advanced than usual, with the Red Astrachans falling off the trees in the wind before ripening, the Anokas turning bright red (but not quite ripe), and the Primas getting ripe and tasty. This will be a better than average crop, although the winds of hurrican season may still bring them down before their time. Although the Baldwin I planted 15 years ago has had a half-dozen or so apples each year for the past five, this year there's an abundance. More than ever are on the Golden Russet as well. I must walk around and check them all out, but I've been doing other things.