The Garden Right Now

I don't post as much as I used to.

I thought it would be nice to post a few pictures of the garden right now, though.

This is my front yard garden by the garage. This is also my favorite
garden. Currently, it has some red flowered fava beans, milkweed,
cardinal's cap, celosia, and nasturtiums in it. Along the trellis are
green beans, vining nasturtiums and passion vines. 

This is the Twenty Foot Garden. In front of the box, is Swiss Chard.
In the garden box itself, I have Ruth Bible beans and Lousiana
Purple Podded Pole beans, regular and cherry tomatoes, a
Tromboncino zucchini, 6 cucumbers, 24 okra in 3 varieties and
Mississippi Cream peas. 

This is the bed by the front door. I have Easter lilies coming up
everywhere, but they haven't bloomed yet this year. There is lemon
balm and thyme in the bed and the purple things are ornamental
cabbages. The bird bath on the ground is for butterflies. They use
wet sand to get their drinks and salt intake. 

Comparison of the Heirloom Beans I Grew 2012 Part 1

This year I decided to grow several different types of heirloom beans. What I wanted was to find at least one bean that I loved enough to plant every year and save my own seeds.

I grew Scarlet Runner beans, Mississippi Cream peas, Pink Eye Purple Hull peas, Lazy Wife beans, Good Mother Stallard beans, Ruth Bible beans, Louisiana Purple Pod Pole beans and Trail of Tears beans.

I am going to leave the Trail of Tears beans out of my evaluations, because I had to pull them and didn't get a good read of how they grow.

This will be divided into two posts so that the posts are not so long.

Scarlet Runner bean flower in my front yard

Scarlet Runner beans: These grow better in cooler soil than any of the other beans I planted. Biologically, they are not the same (and therefore won't cross) with common beans. I planted them early, because it warms so fast in the spring around here.

They grew really well in my yard, and made beautiful flowers. They attracted hummingbirds. They weren't bothered by any pests. My family and I just didn't like the taste. If I were growing these for their beauty only, I would grow them every year. But I am not. I am trying for beans we can eat. We were completely turned off by the taste.

Okra on the left, with Mississippi Cream peas and one
little Pink Eye Purple Hull pea (the one purple one). 

Mississippi Cream peas:  These peas like it HOT. The hotter the weather the better they like it. These plants are not going to do well until the soil is properly warmed, so wait until after all threat of frost is past to plant them.  They are not in the same family (and therefore, won't cross) with common beans. They grow in long, trailing vines. In my garden, they were very aggressive, running over other plants in their eager pursuit of sunshine.

They grew very well in my garden. I loved the way they took over everything in their path. My whole family enjoyed the taste. I found out after planting them that they are an heirloom of my husband's family.  We never tried them this way, because I only found out that you can eat the pods after the season was over, but they supposedly make great green beans, too.

I cannot praise these peas enough. We will definitely grow them again and I plan to devote much more space in the garden to these beauties.

From 40 plants, I harvested 413 pods.

Pink Eye Purple Hull peas (see the picture above):  These are in the same family as the Mississippi Cream peas. They will cross with Mississippi Cream peas, but not with common beans. They grow as little bushy plants, sometimes throwing off a runner or two. These are a staple in the Southern US. I have eaten them all my life. They are available everywhere in the summer time.

I didn't enjoy growing these very much. The plants didn't do very well for me. They were covered in aphids. The fact that they grew in bushes rather than vines means that I would have to have more space to be able to get a proper harvest. The purple pods are really striking, but none of the purple pods got as long in my garden as the Mississippi Cream peas.

We will not be planting these next year. I am going to devote all that space to the Mississippi Cream peas.

Out of 100 plants we harvested 100 pods.

Left to right: Lazy Wife Beans, Ruth Bible Beans and Trail of Tears
Beans

Lazy Wife beans (also called Lazy Housewife beans): These are common beans. They will cross with any other common bean variety, but not with runner beans or cowpeas. I planted these because I liked the name and the story behind them. They were described as heavily producing beans and completely stringless. These beans are supposed to be the wide and flat variety, not the ones like haricot verts.

The bean seed I bought must have been contaminated somehow, because the beans had strings. I don't have a scale, but I carefully counted each bean pod we brought into the house in order to try to get a good idea how much production we were getting from different types of beans.

Of the beans I planted, I ended up with 35 plants. I harvested 596 pods. They were in the garden the same amount of time as the Ruth Bible beans and yet they didn't produce as many pods as the Ruth Bible beans.

Ruth Bible beans: (see the picture above, center bean)  These are common beans. They will cross with any other common beans, but not with runner beans or cowpeas. I planted these because I like the name. They are becoming very scarce.

These beans produced like "a house afire"! Oh my. They outproduced everything in my garden this year. I stared out eating them as green beans, and they have the old fashioned green bean flavor when cooked that way. I didn't like stringing the beans, and they produced so much that I had a hard time keeping up with the green bean picking, so I started eating them as "shelly" beans. Our family enjoyed the flavor much better that way.

As for numbers, they were in the ground the same amount of time as the Lazy Wife beans. I had 20 plants that grew. I harvested 901 pods. Yes. That is right. If you look at the number of plants I had in the ground, I harvested more pods off of less plants with the Ruth Bible beans. This is important for my family, because we have only a small plot of ground to work. If I can get 901 pods off of 20 plants, and only 596 pods off of 35 plants, I am going to choose the one that I can harvest more for less plants.

Mississippi Cream Peas

Mississippi Cream Peas before shelling

Mississippi Cream peas after shelling (with flash) 

Mississippi Cream peas after shelling (no flash) 

Cooked Mississippi cream peas with mashed potatoes and
a side salad of tomatoes and cucumbers

Mississippi Cream Peas

I love the beautiful double flowers on these peas. They open
downward. Before the buds open, they are yellow. They open to
these double white flowers. 

The first of the Mississippi Cream peas. I cannot wait to eat them. 

A Story about Field Peas

After reading several posts by Kris at Georgia Home Garden about field peas, I decided to hunt some field peas down to fill the beds when I remove the corn. I have gotten interested in heirloom seeds, so I spent a good bit of time looking through different sites, trying to find an unusual variety to (possibly) preserve. The plan was to plant some unusual variety of cowpea (field peas, crowder peas, cream peas, Southern cowpeas--as far as I can tell these names represent the same type of plants.) I would grow it, and if my family and I liked it, I would save it, and possibly offer it on Seed Savers Exchange.

I spent several hours on different websites looking for something that sounded "just right." I asked Kris his opinion, and considered that as well. All in all, I spent too much time on the idea of field peas. Then (Yes, I agree, it was too late. I should have asked my husband first.) Then I asked Greg. He said, "I love Pink Eye Purple Hull peas." Well. I should have just asked him. Then I wouldn't have spent so much time trying to find some other variety.

So I placed an order with St. Clare Seeds for Pink Eye Purple Hulls. After I received my packet of seeds, I decided that I really would need more seeds than that, so I placed another order for more of the same seeds. The second time, St. Clare Seeds sent me a free packet of Mississippi Cream Cowpeas.

I had a few bare spots in the Twenty Foot Garden. On a whim, I planted the Mississippi Cream peas in those spots. I planted approximately 40 seeds. I gave the rest to my children. They "planted" them around the yard.

I was surprised and pleased at how quickly they grew. I had almost 100% germination.

Now to the really interesting part of this story. I had never heard of these beans. I planted them on a whim.

My mother-in-law came by and wanted to see the garden. I showed her what I had, explaining what everything was. I mentioned the name "Mississippi Cream peas," and she squealed. I have never heard her make that sound. I looked at her sideways. What did that sound mean?

She explained, "My Granny Johnson loved Cream Peas. They didn't sell them in Mobile. Every year she would make us (meaning my father-in-law and her) go back to Andalusia to get a bushel of Cream Peas."

It really moved her that I was growing these beans that reminded her of her Granny Johnson.

Now I feel that the Lord gave me a gift. Free beans, yes, but more than that. A story of my kids' heritage. A story I would never have heard if I had not planted these beans.

A side note about this: those beans were rare in the Mobile, Alabama in the 1990's when her grandmother died, according to my mother-in-law. She has personally not eaten them at all or seen them offered for sale since her Granny Johnson died. Even way back then, the beans were rare. I did a search of these beans on the Seed Savers Exchange 2012 Yearbook. They are not listed at all. Not one member of the Seed Savers Exchange has Mississippi Cream Peas on offer. I will list mine if I get enough.

Please, if you have seed that can be saved, consider saving it. It's not very hard, and the variety may not be available if you don't help.