Beans!

One of the things I've learned from the Three Sisters Garden is that I've planted too many beans!  I'll go into all of the things I've learned when the Three Sisters Garden is finished, however, today I'm processing beans.

I normally only plant about 8 pole bean plants and in the past I've always grown Fortex.  This is a bean that produces lots of extremely long, tasty beans which freeze beautifully.  This year, with the gift of seed from my husband's friend, I've grown instead heritage Italian beans.  I put in 16 plants amongst the corn and now realize that's waaaaay too many!  These beans have enormous leaves and I think they're even more vigorous than Fortex.  They've broken the tops of the corn stalks - fortunately corn is finished for the year - and formed a huge mat across the tops of the corn.  It's very hard to grope in the jungle to pick beans!

I've been picking for a couple of weeks now and today there seemed to be enough to process for freezing.  I picked half a big wicker basket full of the purple-splotched beans and carefully left those which are growing on the bean rack I've placed to hold up one of the patches.  Those will be left to mature so I have seed for next year.  I'm sure I'll also discover lots of mature beans inside the jungle when I dismantle it in the fall!

I process beans by first of all topping and tailing, then cutting them up into 1" segments.  I plunge them into boiling water for a minute or two until they turn bright green.  This important step stops the enzyme action which matures the beans.  Most of the purple disappears at this point.  Then I drain them and cool quickly under cold running water to stop the cooking process.  An ice bath, which is how you're supposed to cool them, takes too long and probably uses more water by the time you make huge quantities of ice.  Then I blot them to take out most of the moisture, spread them on cookie sheets and pop them into the freezer.  Once frozen, I vacuum seal them in plastic.  I've learned not to take too much air out of the bags because the sharp points of frozen beans can pierce the plastic.

This is only the first proper picking and there are so many more beans developing as well as lots of flowers.  I think I may have grown enough beans to feed an army!  Next year?  If I do the Three Sisters Garden again, I'll probably only plant half a dozen beans with the corn.  The beans are too heavy for the corn to support more.  I'll probably also bring the bean rack back into use and grow more beans on their own for ease of picking.  In the meantime, we'll enjoy fresh picked beans with our dinner tonight and dream happily of many dinners to come in the winter thanks to the produce of our own labours.