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Beans, Beans, Beans
One of my first posts – in fact it was my first gardening related post – was on the subject of beans and green beans in particular. I enjoy growing beans and I enjoy eating beans, particularly with tomato and garlic! I am still looking for the perfect garden variety to grow though. I love the flavour of Jade but have found the germination rates this year to be really really bad (about 10-20%), this is from both freshly bought seed and seed I saved from my own plants last year. I don’t know why it is so bad but it has been and the plants that have germinated have been strangely stunted.
My other varieties are performing much better so far.
Other than the Jade I am also growing:
Tongues of Fire – a drying bean similar to Borlotti with a bush growing habit.
Majestic – a bush butter bean.
Royal Burgandy – a purple podded bush variety
Windsor Long Pod- Long flat pods on a dwarf bush plant.
Beanette- a small podded dwarf bean variety.
Purple King – a purple podded climbing variety
I hope to also plant some dwarf borlotti beans soon. Aside from the Jade I have only grown Purple King before and I am only really planting it this year as my daughter sowed a couple of seeds at her birthday party. She had a fairy tale theme and in true Jack and the Beanstalk style they all sowed bean seeds hence this lovely Purple King plant – I’ve since put in a couple more next to it so it doesn’t get too lonely.
I have planted beans in both large 45cm pots (probably too close together – but I am used to Jade’s poor germination rates) and in the ground so I am hoping for a reasonable crop. I do love how beans grow at a decent rate, none of that waiting around for stuff to happen you get with some vegetables (are you listening onions?). Below are the same tub of beans with 2 weeks between photos.
Cucumber & Radish Salad with Feta Dressing
In another life, or at least long enough ago that it feels like another life, I was vegetarian. I kind of wish I still was but what with young children and a heavily carnivore partner its easier to just eat the occasional bit of meat (not usually red meat but meat nonetheless). Prior to falling off the wagon (who knew that saying “No carne” in appalling French to a Tunisian wouldn’t rule out Tuna?) I was a good little non-meat eating gourmet. As a result I have quite a lot of vegetarian cook books, and not all of them have “healthy” or “whole” in the title. Incidentally, why is it that Op shop selves are littered with Wholefood cookbooks? Actually you probably don’t need to answer that question – the question should probably be why do Op Shops still accept copies of Wholefood cookbooks (or Julie Stafford’s Taste of Life for that matter – I challenge anyone to enter a Melbourne Op Shop and not find a cookbook by Julie Stafford – its remarkably difficult)?
“Wholefood” cookbooks aside (and I do admit that even they have their place – I am particularly partial to the occasional lentil and nut loaf with piquant dressing) there are some absolutely fabulous vegetarian cookbooks out there. One of these is a paperback I own called Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery by David Scott. Its a really nice little book – no pictures but lots of nice recipes using the sort of produce I usually eat & grow. One of these recipes I adapted for lunch today – Cucumber with a feta cheese dressing which in my house became Cucumber & Radish salad with feta cheese dressing as I had some lovely radishes ready for harvest.
This recipe should really serve more than one person (particularly if served with a selection of salads) but I’d been swimming and was hungry so I scoffed the lot.
Cucumber & Radish Salad with a Feta Dressing
- 1 cucumber – finely sliced
- 3 smallish radishes – finely sliced
- 1/2 onion – finely sliced
- a handful of lettuce leaves
- 100g feta (I usually use a mild Tasmanian or Danish style feta for this dressing)
- 2 tblspns extra virgin olive oil
- juice of a lemon (I used a Meyer lemon today with great results)
- 1/2 – 1 tsp dried oregano – crushed*
- Pepper
Arrange the cucumber, radish and onion on top of the lettuce leaves. Mash the remaining ingredients together with a fork to make the dressing. I do find the dressing does split a bit but that this doesn’t detract from the flavour. Serve.
* I find store bought oregano stronger than the stuff I dry myself. I’m not sure whether this is because its a different variety or that mine is growing in the shade and needs a bit more sun to really develop its flavour. With store bought oregano I would use 1/2 tsp but with my oregano I usually add a bit more. If you don’t have oregano, mint – either dried or fresh would make a lovely alternative.
How it really is……
I’m feeling a bit of a fraud, although that’s too strong a word, a bit guilty isn’t quite right either, deceptive is kind of what I mean. You see my garden isn’t perfect. I wrote my October -Wrap Up post and gots lots of lovely comments about how lush the garden looks. While that’s true in places;
it isn’t always really true if you look a bit closer. So today I thought I’d show you the other side, the side I carefully edit out of the photos, the failures, the half eaten and the just plain messy.
I thought I start with the eaten (with a few weeds thrown in for good measure). Whilst I know what has caused the damage on the cabbage (a large green caterpillar) this is the first time I have encountered these beetles (see below). After a little research I think they are either cucumber or potato beetles – probably the later as they are on a Cape Gooseberry which is Solanaceae. Annoying destructive little things, they have returned twice after I gave them the Pyrethrum treatment – does anyone have other ideas?
If plants aren’t getting eaten they’re doing things they shouldn’t be doing – like bolting rather than developing a heart – this is supposed to be iceberg lettuce:
Then there are all those signs of neglect – the mess, weeds and plants that clearly need a new home:
And finally there are the failures: Garlic planted in potting mix that was clearly past its best:
Worst of all (although I know there are some who will disagree) my dill, my lovely dill, the thing they call weed in the States, so I presumed would be indestructable, and that I was talking up a couple of weeks ago, has done this:
If anyone knows what kills dill I would love to know.
