Two new items for the garden

Sometimes I get in a rut.  When I find something I really like, I tend to keep going back to it.  Do you ever do that with a certain dish at your favorite restaurant?  Or a recipe at home that you keep repeating?  It's human nature to have preferences and a desire to stay within your comfort zone or with something you like.  Sometimes I try to push myself to mix it up a bit and try new things to expand my horizons.  Sometimes we'll try something that we all agree we'll never try again, but inevitably we'll find something that is a hit and we'll incorporate it into our repertoire.  Variety is the spice of life, or so they say.

I like to add colorful, weird stuff to the garden.  This Spring we're going to try Chinese Mosaic Long Beans.  It is a vining bean so I planted it against the trellis I had constructed for the Purple Podded Peas (see, weird stuff!).  The neat thing about these beans is that they grow 12 - 18 inches long and are crisp and flavorful.  They are eaten just like you would a green bean, but they are a lavender/pink shaded color.  They are supposed to be tender, with a nutty flavor.  We'll give it a try and report back our review. 


Long Bean Chinese Mosaic

To plant we first tore down all the vines from the purple podded peas that were attached to the trellis and fed the vines to the happy cows.  Then we worked up the soil and added some compost and a little sandy potting mix that I bought to amend since the dirt on this row was some topsoil that was compacted and heavy with clay.

My sidekick, Russ, after we've finished planting the beans.

The next new item (to us) in the garden is Fava Beans.  Fava Beans are an Old World crop and are one of the oldest crops in cultivation.  They're also easy to grow.  They are a legume and thus, fix nitrogen in the soil, so not only will they feed us, but Fava Beans will feed the soil as well.  Nice. 


Fava Bean

The beans themselves are very large, odd-looking.  Now I know why they are called broad beans.  I did a quick search to see how you cook them and found that fava beans are best when eaten raw or lightly cooked -such as blanching or a quick saute, because their flavor is lost when they've been cooked for a long time.


Large beans

They are best eaten when young and tender and you can even eat the leaves - either raw or cooked like spinach.  They take at least 90 days to mature, so we'll report back on this as well.  Hopefully we'll have a two thumbs up review.

Fava bean planted and ready to be covered looks like a copper penny

Here's the only problem with trying new things.  Since I've added several new crops, but kept all of the other favorites we plant year in and year out, I'm running out of space in the garden.  I could expand the garden into the pasture, but that would cut into the grass that the cows, chickens, and our newest addition to the barnyard needs to eat.  I'll post about her tomorrow.