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Vegetable Beans


There are a variety of different beans you can grow in the garden. All taste great when freshly picked.

As well as green pod beans there are purple and yellow varieties you can try. Haricot beans are grown for seeds rather than the pods.

Runner Beans
Site and Soil
Well-prepared fertile soil, moisture retentive but not soggy, in sun.

Dig plenty of well-rotted manure, compost or leaf-mould into the soil to improve moisture retention and improve fertility. Neutral or slightly acid soils produce best crops.

A trench prepared the previous autumn will provide a good, nutrient rich site for beans, but if you only get around to making the trench at planting time in spring, it is still worth while.

Sowing Seed
Beans are not generally hardy and the soil must be warm before sowing or the seeds will not germinate.

Sowing Outdoors
Sow outdoors from 2 weeks before the last frost, in late spring to early summer.

Place the canes for supporting the plants in the ground 30cm (12in) apart, with 60cm (2ft) between double rows. Sow two seeds 5cm (2in) deep at the base of each support - you can thin out the weaker plant and have a more even and productive harvest.

Germination can take 6 to 15 days. Sow every two to three weeks to provide a succession of supply.

Sowing Under Cover
Sow indoors from mid- to late-spring in individual 8cm (3in) pots.

Beans can be started undercover but should be transplanted carefully. It is best to sow directly into the garden. Pairs of seeds sown into a 'newspaper' or milk carton pot (see Growing from Seed), removing the weaker plant after germination. Plant newspaper pot and all when the soil warms, milk cartons should be slit and removed before planting.

Timing
Sow seeds outdoors from late spring to early summer.

Sow indoors from mid- to late-spring

To avoid them coming ripe at once, sow seeds in successions resulting in a smaller crop at any one time but longer period of supply

Care
You can plant in blocks and grow up the plants up a wigwam of sticks such as our 'beanhouse' frame. The support you choose depends on the amount of space available and the style of your garden.

Watch for slugs when the seeds first germinate, as these can devastate your crop before it gets underway.

Protect the seeds and plants from birds, especially in the initial period of growth.

Harden off seedlings started under cover and plant out from late spring to summer, once late frosts are over.

Plant out 23cm (9in) apart in a single row, with rows 45cm (18in) apart.

A wigwam of canes or supports, each 25-30cm (10-12in) apart is ideal. Loosely tie the plants to the supports when planting and then they will climb unaided. When the plants reach the top of the canes, pinch out the growing tips.

Keep the ground weeded and a generous regular watering after the flowers appear is the key to success, especially if combined with good soil preparation.

After the first crop, remove the lower leaves and drop the plants to the ground, new growth will produce a second crop.

Harvesting
Summer to early autumn. Pick once the pods begin to swell for tender beans.

Pick regularly to encourage a longer and more continuous supply.

Harvest Lima beans when the pods swell and show the bulge of the beans inside.

Haricot beans are left until the pods turn yellow and then the entire plant hung up to dry. The bean seeds are collected when the pods have become brittle.

As with peas and other pod crops, the more you pick, the more you get.

Days to Harvest Approximately 55 to 75 days. Bush beans harvest earlier than climbing beans, but climbing beans have higher yields and a longer season.

French Beans
Climbing French beans are grown in the same way as runner beans and crop over a longer period than dwarf French beans. As well as green pod beans there are purple and yellow varieties you can try. Haricot beans are grown for seeds rather than the pods.

Dwarf French beans are good small-space plants, and especially suited to deep-bed cultivation. You can grow them in a container on your terrace or balcony, or take the pot to the bach with you from the holidays!

Site and Soil
Open, sunny site, with good drainage and that has been well-cultivated. Neutral or slightly acid soils produce best crops.

Pickled Grilled Eggplant










2 eggplants
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons chili paste
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley leaves
1 teaspoon freshly chopped mint leaves
Gray salt and freshly ground black pepper
Remove the stem end from the eggplants. Cut each eggplant in half lengthwise, and slice into half-inch thick moon slices. In a large mixing bowl, toss the eggplant with the kosher salt and let stand for about 15 to 20 minutes. Rinse and dry the eggplant well, and toss with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and a pinch of pepper. Heat a grill pan over high heat. When the grill pan is hot, cook the eggplant slices until nicely marked on both sides.
Meanwhile in a small mixing bowl whisk the sugar, and garlic into the vinegar, whisk in the chili paste and remaining olive oil. Add the herbs and check for seasoning with salt and pepper.
When the eggplant is marked nicely on both sides remove it from the pan and add it immediately to the marinade (a shallow baking dish works nicely to ensure that all of the eggplant is coated in marinade). Let the eggplant cool to room temperature and serve, or refrigerate in a sealed container.

GROW YOUR OWN SEEDS

Seed saving has helped humans grow their own food in the face of changing demands and environmental pressures ever since they began planting seeds. Historically, home seed saving was how uniquely adapted crop varieties were handed down from generation to generation for continued selection and adaptation.

Farmers and gardeners routinely saved the seed of their crops until the turn of the 20th century, when commercial agricultural interests planted the false idea among them that only skilled professionals were capable of handling this job.

Making Good Seeds Better
Plants are far more variable than most of us realize. If you observe your garden crops closely, you will notice some plants are growing slightly better or maybe tasting better than others. Spotting these plants and saving their seeds can be really exciting. Here are four examples of home gardeners saving such seeds.

DISCOVERING A NEW TOMATO
David Podoll of Prairie Road Organic Farm in Fullerton, North Dakota, had grown seeds of 'Crimson Sprinter,' a slicing tomato well-adapted to his short Northern Plains summers, for a number of years. Several years ago, he discovered a single, unusual fruit among his 'Crimson Sprinter' crop. It had "absolutely unblemished, shiny skin and an intense bright color that was more pink than red." The fruit had excellent flavor, too, so Podoll saved seed from this plant and the next year, grew 10 plants from his cache. All turned out exactly like the original, so Podoll knew his new plant probably was a "sport" or mutant, and not a cross with another tomato variety in his garden. Sports are caused by a specific genetic change in just the right place in the plant's DNA. "Discovering something like this is quite thrilling," Podoll says.

PICKING SPECKLED LETTUCE
Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed in Philomath, Oregon, was growing the Austrian heirloom lettuce 'Forellenschluss' (which in German means "speckled like a trout") because of the beautiful reddish leaf speckles. He noticed the degree of "speckle-ness" varied dramatically from plant to plant and decided he wanted to isolate "the flashier end of the spectrum." Out of 200 plants, he selected 20 of the splotchiest and healthiest, transplanted them to a separate plot and saved their seed. After repeating this process for two generations, he had 80 percent showing the degree of red speckles he wanted; after four generations, he had his new creation (see photo above), which he named `Flashy Trout Back.'

A BUSHIER BEAN
David Cavagnaro, a veteran gardener who lives near Decorah, Iowa, had great success in improving the Mitla black bean to better fit his needs when he lived in California. (Mitla has been grown for more than eight centuries in Oaxaca, Mexico.)
The Mitla bean was highly variable; a few plants were bush-like in stature but most were rambling with semi-runners. Cavagnaro began saving seed from only the most upright bush plants most heavily laden with pods. Within "no more than three years," he says, "I had a very consistent population of plants of the bush type."

CHANGING HIS ZEBRA'S STRIPES
Jeremy Barker Plotkin of Lampson Brook Farm, Belchertown, Massachusetts, found a plant among his 'Green Zebra' tomatoes that had fruit with red stripes instead of green. "We saved its seed," he says, "and the following year got tomatoes with yellow, red and black stripes." Earlier, Barker Plotkin had trialed a number of red-striped tomatoes; he thought they might look nice packed into a box with the 'Green Zebras,' but none merited a place alongside the 'Greens.' "'Tigerella' and 'Mr. Stripey' come to mind as particularly lousy," he says, "but now I am excited to pursue these three new zebra-striped lines."

Many home gardeners feel a sense of empowerment and satisfaction when they rely on their seed-saving abilities—one of the oldest basic human skills—to build up personal seed stocks as they strive for self-sufficiency. And with many seeds now costing $2 or more per packet, saving some of your own also can save you cold hard cash.

Seed saving also helps you develop a better working knowledge of your crops and even improve varieties to meet specific contemporary needs or growing conditions.
Three basic factors you need to consider when you want to save seed from a particular crop:
1) establishing the right separation distance to keep seed plants from crossing with other varieties of the same species;
2) correct population size - saving seed from more than just a few plants to maintain genetic diversity; and
3) harvesting when seed is mature, then cleaning and drying it properly. The chart on Pages 60 and 61 gives these details on seven easy-to-save crops.

Beans, peas and Southern peas are easy to save because they make harvestable seeds in the pods being produced as the vegetable crop. All you need to do is to let the pods fully mature on the plant in order to gather seeds. Tomatoes also are an easy beginning crop; they bear mature seeds as a natural consequence of producing ripe fruit.

These four crops and lettuce also are naturally self-pollinated, which means each plant is pollinated primarily from its own pollen, making it much easier to maintain distinct varieties. Such a seed crop plant is called a "selfer." In contrast, other common crops, including corn, squash, carrots and beets, are called "crossers" because before they can produce seeds, one plant usually is cross-pollinated with pollen carried by wind or insects from a different plant.

GROWING A SEED CROP
To properly manage selfers and crossers, seed savers need to know the minimum distance that each variety should be from any other sexually compatible ("crossable") varieties growing nearby. Called "isolation distance," this spacing depends on whether the variety is self-pollinated or cross-pollinated.

For self-pollinated crops like beans, peas, peppers and tomatoes, the ideal distance between two varieties to ensure no crossing should be 50 feet. However, many seed savers and some seed companies report only infrequent crosses at 20 feet. Frank Morton, lettuce breeder for his company, Wild Garden Seed, in Philomath, Oregon, confirms that lettuces seldom cross when planted 20 feet apart "even in the presence of a number of insect pollinators."

Saving seeds of cross-pollinated crops is more challenging. With "crossers," you must grow only one variety of each crop type per year. It also is important to know if neighboring gardens or farm fields have any related crops that could spread their pollen to your seed crop. Crossers arugula and radish make good crops for a beginner to try because relatively few gardeners grow arugula or allow their radishes to go to seed.

SPACING THE CROP
Healthy plants, unfettered by space restrictions, produce much more seed per plant than plants growing in crowded conditions. But many people plant their seeds more densely in a row than-recommended on seed packets. For example, green beans should be planted at the rate of six to eight seeds per foot per row, but frequently, overzealous gardeners plant them at twice that rate.

If you're planning to save seed, plant row crops like beans and peas even more sparsely (four to six seeds per foot) to encourage maximum aeration, which helps reduce possible bacterial or fungal rot on the pods should wet conditions develop.
Plant lettuce for seed saving at the recommended rate on the seed packet.
Handle radishes differently. Pull and spread out the entire crop in a shady spot to select the best ones in terms of color, shape and good health. Trim off the oldest leaves of those plants, and replant the roots in a new spot at 12- to 18-inch intervals in the row.

Many gardeners know that considerable leeway—as much as six weeks for beans and peas, and even more for arugula, lettuce and radish—exists wits respect to how late you can plant and still get a harvest before it freezes. This isn't the case for crops being grown for seed. Plant breeder Morton says a full 150 to 180 days are needed to produce viable lettuce seed at his western Oregon farm. For the seed to mature by late September at the earliest and by the middle of October at the latest, he must have planted the crop by mid-April.

For Southern gardeners with long growing seasons, Southern peas, including crowder, black-eyed and pink-eyed peas, are good choices because they produce a healthy seed crop under hotter conditions than the other crops on this list. They also are an excellent seed crop choice because many of the once-numerous Southern regional favorites are in dire need of preservation.

Many novice seed savers collect seed from just a couple of plants, Unfortunately, this practice tends to narrow genetic variation in the variety, and over a number of generations, it can cause a variety to change and eventually lose some of the unique traits that made it special in the first place.

The population size for cross-pollinated crops is even more important than for selfers. Genetic variation from plant to plant in any particular crosser is considerably greater than in most selfers. This means that no one plant in a stand of crosser plants contains all of the particular traits (and the genes determining those traits) that comprise that variety. Crossers "openly pollinate" with other plants of their variety, sharing their genes with any other plant in that group each time they reproduce. The chart on Pages 60 and 61 tells you the recommended number of plants for seed collecting.

HARVESTING
Seeds harvested before they reach maturity will have a low germination rate and any resulting seedlings may lack vigor and may be more susceptible to disease, especially under stressful conditions.

Dry-seeded crops like beans, peas, Southern peas, radishes and arugula make seed in pods that signal when the crop is ready to harvest. Collect pods when they have completely dried, turned beige or light brown in color, and are crisp and easy to crack open.

When pods look and feel ready, harvest them quickly or risk losing them to either too much moisture or a lack of it. Wetness from rain and dew encourages rot; overly dry conditions leave the pods susceptible to splitting open (shattering) and spilling their seeds on the ground.

To harvest pod-bearing seed crops, cut the entire plant near its base. Lay out cut plants a single layer deep on a tarp in the sun. If rain is forecast or if wind is excessive, place the plants on a cement or wooden floor inside a warm, airy structure. After several days, "thresh" the seeds from the pods by picking up a few plants at a time and whacking them against the bottom of a large container, such as a wheelbarrow, that has sides at least a foot high. This works well with crops like arugula and mustard, which have pods that easily release their seeds, but many bean and pea plants are not so easily threshed. They can be shelled out by hand or you can "dance" gently on cloth bags filled with these plants to get the pods to shatter. Take care not to overdo it: Any damage to the seed itself can destroy its ability to germinate or shorten its storage life considerably.

Saving Tomato Seed
To extract tomato seed from the fruit, cut the fruit in half along the equator and squeeze the seeds, with the juice and some pulp, into a plastic yogurt or cottage cheese container. Place the container in a warm spot to allow this slurry to ferment. The fermentation is desirable for two reasons: Yeasts will rot away the placental sack in which each seed resides, leaving behind clean, easy-to-use seed and removing any bacterial diseases that could affect the next crop.

After two to three days of fermentation, a thick, moldy mass will form on the surface. Stir vigorously to break up the mass, and the good seeds will sink to the bottom. Decant the floating seeds carefully, and add more water. Repeat the process until all that remains is clean water and good seed. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer and allow to drip dry before spreading the seeds on a plate for their final, thorough drying.

After threshing, "winnow" the seed with the help of a good stiff breeze or fan. Winnowing is the act of cleaning the seed of debris, called chaff, which is mainly pieces of pods and stems.

To winnow, slowly "spill" uncleaned seed from one container to another while the breeze or a fan blows the broken pods and stems away. Two 5-gallon buckets, or for smaller quantities, two rectangular dishpans, work well for this task. The debris will blow over the top edge of the bottom bucket or pan while most of the good seed will fall into it. Repeat the process several times until the seed is cleaned.

After harvesting a dry-seeded crop, spread the seed to be saved out on a clean, dry surface that is out of the sun and protected from the wind, but in a warm, dry place. Make sure cross ventilation is good (fans come in handy for this) but not strong enough to blow the seed off the drying surface.

WET-SEED HARVESTING
Determining the maturity of wet-seeded crops such as tomatoes and peppers, which bear their seed inside the fruit (yes, botanically, these are the fruit), is much easier than with dry-seeded crops. With wet-seeded crops, when the fruit is ripe, the seed is, too. Viable tomato seed can be extracted from fruit picked at the perfect eating stage, but the quality of the seed will be superior if you allow selected fruit to overripen on the plants for just a few days. Don't allow the fruit to start rotting, though, because fungal or bacterial growths could damage the seed.

A wet-seeded crop should be spread out thinly on a screen (best) or a clean, nonstick cookie sheet or tray. Place the screen or tray in a warm, dry place, out of the sun, with plenty of airflow, which can be facilitated by a fan. Both wet- and dryseeded crops should be stirred once or twice a day during this stage to assure even drying.

Flat seed should break instead of fold if it is dry enough to store, and hard-shelled seed like corn or beans should shatter, not mash, when struck with a hammer.
Always store seeds in cool, dry conditions. In most locations, breathable paper envelopes work well with smaller quantities of seed. In dry climates, muslin sacks are good for larger quantities, and in humid locations, airtight containers such as glass canning jars work best, but you should be sure the seed is perfectly dry before placing it in the container. For several years of successful storage, seed should he stored where temperature and humidity fluctuate as little as possible; never put seed in an attic or an outdoor shed. Many seeds will retrain viable for six to eight years if kept cool and dry.