today's harvest

My Chinese pole beans are ready! These are my favorite bean. Big and lumpy - a green and white color mix. They are crisp and tender even when they grow very big.

A friend gave me some seeds. I've grown them for three years now and have to make sure to save a handful of beans to plant next year.

Shunguang's beans

Seeds for these beans were given to me last year. They are unusual pole beans with a lumpy shape, green and white color, and unusually crisp lemony flavor. I don't think they are the same as the Yard Long beans I've seen around, which usually aren't lumpy and white. I'm very pleased these were shared with me.

This is my first bean harvest this year. I think my pods aren't as long as the pods Shunguang grew last year. I'm growing them next to my house where its a bit shady. My crop is late because of the cool weather, slugs, clouds, etc....

I've book marked this recipe that Daphne suggested. I'm looking forward to trying it soon.

bean sprouts

These are sprouts of Chinese pole beans. A fantastic variety given to me by a friend of my husband. Such brave little sprouts poking up through the soil.

Chinese bean seeds

I was given some beautiful hand collected Chinese pole bean seeds a couple of days ago. These were collected by a local gardener/colleague, who also shared some fresh beans with me last summer. The fresh beans were long, very crisp and a bit lemony in flavor (my photo). I was hoping I could grow some myself this year and am extremely pleased he shared his seed crop with me. Thank you Shunguang! There's nothing better than hand collected, heirloom seeds. Shunguang says the seeds store best in their shells, but I opened pod one just to see what the seeds look like.

Last summer Shunguang also shared with me some photos of his vegetable garden, which I post here below. I love to look at garden photos, especially in the middle of winter. It looks like a big plot with fantastic rows of produce. Corn, beans, cukes, radish, etc. Thanks also to Shunguang for sharing these photos.





My garden is nowhere near as big as Shunguang's, but I look forward to having a couple tepees of Chinese pole beans this year.

Chinese pole beans

chinese beans

A real treat! My husband brought home these beautiful green beans yesterday. A colleague of his shared them with us. He grew them in his garden. I don't know the name of the variety, but these beans are really delicious. Very firm and crispy, with a tart lemony flavor. The shape and pale green color of these very long beans is really lovely. I just cooked them the way I usually cook beans, but I'm hoping to find a Chinese recipe for them. I am very excited that the gardener offered to share some seeds with me this fall!

Fabaceae