Farm to Table

As our temperatures hover in the 90's day after day, the garden is quickly dwindling.  The cucumbers are playing out, the corn is finished, the green beans are "on their last legs," and the squash is showing signs of "giving up the ghost.  The tomatoes are tiring.  Those that still bear fruit are being attacked by hordes of stink bugs.

The produce in the garden that really carries us through until the fall is cow peas (southern peas) and okra.  We grow purple hull peas, blackeyed peas, and ozark razorback peas.  They thrive in hot weather and laugh at the other garden vegetables that wither in the summer heat.

We are picking the last of our green beans (Contender and Blue Lake).  I think that green beans are my favorite garden vegetable.  I can't get enough of them.  As a kid when my parents were trying to get me to eat my vegetables, I think green beans got my foot in the door.  I just love 'em.  I fresh pick 'em in the garden, bring them in and wash them up.  We snap the ends off of them, usually picking when they are young and tender. 

Simply lightly sauteing them in butter is a perfect side dish, but I'll show you what we do when we want to kick it up a notch.  We add bacon.  Is there any dish that can't be improved by adding bacon?  I think not.

We arrange the fresh green beans in little bundles and wrap with bacon.  We add a little brown sugar or molasses to the top of each bundle and pop the tray in the oven.

Holy, moly, is this good!

Use a spatula to put a bundle on your plate and it makes you feel like you are in a fancy schmancy restaurant.

We've blanched a number of green beans and frozen them in quart freezer bags to enjoy when they are out of season.  In mid-August I'll plant a couple of rows of green beans so that we have more to enjoy!