Our cousin invited us over to pick blackberries from her garden a couple of weeks ago, and after we had picked those she offered us the end of the green bean crop as well. You would think that I would have thought of this, but having rarely had mature green beans in my garden it was a nice discovery... our cousin (who is in her 70's) said that when they have mature beans and young snap beans ready at the same time they shelled the mature beans and mixed them in with the snap beans and cooked them till all were nice and tender. Ok, why didn't I think of that!! We brought the beans home snapped the tender ones, shelled the older ones seasoned them with some pan fried onions; precooked, chopped pepper bacon, all season salt, onion & garlic powder and let them cook up for about an hour so all the beans were tender. What a treat! Great way to use up those end of the season beans!
Now, here we are in mid September and my green beans are just now producing. Thank goodness we haven't had a frost. I had planted them twice and they just didn't do very well, not enough sun in the spot I chose. Well, the fruit trees that are shading that part of the garden will be getting a good pruning in the spring and that should help the garden beds get more sunlight.
All in all, still learning and pushing the limits of what plants will grow in the conditions we have around our yard. You're never too old to learn new things!
Happy Gardening!
