Green Beans

Our green beans have started popping up! I planted lots of these with it's companion plant, corn. I plan to put about half up for Food Storage. I'm trying to decide if I want to freeze or can them. I'd prefer to freeze them because I think they'll have more nutrients. The problem is that our freezer is pretty full with grass fed beef, etc.  Maybe I'll do both unless I get another freezer.

See the bean close to the bottom right corner in the opening of all the leaves?

Another thing I'm debating on is blanching them before freezing but I have a neighbor who doesn't blanch her veggies. Blanching is supposed to stop the enzymes from progressing?  So I'm unsure which to do.  I guess I can try both and see which we like better.

What do you do with your beans?

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday. 

Slow Garden Progress

We got a late start because we didn't have our boxes or garden plan ready and the weather was very wet. So our garden is still small and I'm worried some won't turn out such as the broccoli & cauliflower but at least I tried and we'll see what comes of it.

Got our first harvest today besides a few small strawberries here and there! It was a small one but I was glad that something was coming from our efforts. I was able to have a salad with my lunch.

Now our strawberries are bigger and really coming along.  Mmm, my favorite fruit!

Gardening Carnival - Carrots

The Gardening Carnival is in it's second week.  I'm seeking information about organic gardening. I'm going to be trying Square Foot Gardening this year by using Companion Gardening as well. I want to avoid GM seeds and spraying chemicals. I hope that we can all help each other by sharing our research and knowledge about gardening so that it won't be so overwhelming for us first-timers and so that we can have success in this endeavor. Please share any knowledge you have in the comments, feel free to link to your blog if you have info there and to link back here. You can use this picture if you want, unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out how to imbed "Gardening Carnival" into the picture. If anyone knows, would you mind commenting below.

I wanted to focus on carrots for this week's Gardening Carnival. Carrots are the most eaten veggie in our family.  Simple to grab and snack on or add to a meal.
I'm going to format my notes in the following way to be able to go back for future referencing:

Seeds/SqFt - 16
Growing Season - Spring, Summer, Fall and sometimes Winter depending on area.
Indoor seed starting - No, doesn't transplant well.
Earliest Outdoor Planting - 3 weeks before last spring frost.
Location - Full sun but can stand partial shade.
Companions
- Tomatoes, leaf lettuce, chives, onions, leeks, radishes, rosemary, wormwood & sage.
- Carrot roots helps with the growth of peas and beans and possibly lettuce.
Non-Companions - Dill.  Store away from apples.
Sprouts - 2-3 weeks
Growing
- Plant 2-3 seeds in each 16 spaces in square.
- Water soil & cover square with plastic covered cage.
- Keep ground moist at all times until they're almost mature to grow rapidly & continuously then reduce water so carrots don't crack from overly rapid growth.
- Weed weekly.
- If doing long and thing ones, grow in a taller square foot box.
Weeks from seed to harvest - 10
Harvesting
- Pull those with largest tops
- Pick early when only 1/2 size at sweetest and most tender?
- Scrub with veggie brush but don't peel.  Most of the vitamins are in the peel or close to the surface.
- For a late winter harvest, mulch heavily to keep ground from freezing to protect fall planted carrots.
Problems
- Carrot rust fly - onions, leeks & herbs (rosemary, wormwood & sage) act as repellents.
- Rabbits, woodchucks, deer, voles.
Seed Storage - 3-4 years from packet

This is part of this week's Real Food Wednesday.

Gardening Carnival - Sugar Snap Peas

The Gardening Carnival kicks off today!  I'm seeking information about organic gardening.  I'm going to be trying Square Foot Gardening this year by using Companion Gardening as well.  I want to avoid GM seeds and spraying chemicals.  I hope that we can all help each other by sharing our research and knowledge about gardening so that it won't be so overwhelming for us first-timers and so that we can have success in this endeavor.  Please share any knowledge you have in the comments, feel free to link to your blog if you have info there and to link back here.  You can use this picture if you want, unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out how to imbed "Gardening Carnival" into the picture.  If anyone knows, would you mind commenting below.

The first vegetable I wanted to explore for this week's Gardening Carnival are Sugar Snap Peas. These peas are our family's favorite veggie. I was nervous that I would find out that it was genetically modified but as far as I can tell it isn't. Yay! So I plan on ordering a packet from Seed Savers.

I'm going to format my notes in the following way to be able to go back for future referencing:

Seeds/SqFt - 8
Growing Season - Spring, Fall
Indoor seed starting - No, doesn't transplant well.
Earliest Outdoor Planting - 5 weeks before last spring frost, which is usually May 11th.
Location - Full sun in spring; shaded toward summer if possible.
Companions - Carrots, cucumbers, corn, beans, potatoes, turnips, and radishes, as well as many aromatic herbs.
Non-Companions - Onions, garlic, and gladiolus.
Sprouts - 10-15 days
Growing - Plant 1" deep
               - Water & cover in plastic covered tunnel?
               - Never let them dry out but keep the vines dry.
               - Weed weekly
               - Keep the vines trained up the vertical frame
               - Mulch as weather gets warm
Weeks from seed to harvest - 10
Yield - 6 weeks
Harvesting - (Carefully with 2 hands) pick or cut pods off their stems.  We'll surely eat them right in the garden!
If we find any brown overripe peas, which I doubt, we'll throw them into the compost pile.  Or else it will cause the vine to stop producing which we definately don't want!

Problems - wood ashes around the base of vines help control aphids.

Seed Storage - 3-4 years from packet or *Leave the pea pods on the plant until they turn brown and dry for 2-4 weeks then put them in the freezer for a couple of days, to kill any weevils that may have gotten inside, before putting them away for the year. To do that, they need to be very dry. Put seeds in the jar after drying, tightly seal it, then put in the freezer. After removing from the freezer, don't open until the seeds have had plenty of time to return to room temps (to prevent condensation).

End of Season - Plow under or put in compost pile.

Questions:
* How do you store the seeds from your harvest?  I wouldn't want to put a big jar in the freezer with only a little bit of seeds in.  I'm thinking maybe in a small ziplock bag but that might end up with lots of ice crystals in it.  Or perhaps an homemade paper envelope with other seeds in envelopes in the jar would work better (since they would be like the seed packets)?
* I've read in a couple of places to mix presoaked seeds with legume inoculant powder for an added boost or a larger crop but I'm not sure if the inoculant powder is organic. Does anyone know?  I probably won't do it since I've never done it before and it seems to turn out fine.
* Any tips?  I've heard that you can spray old dishwater on corn to prevent bugs instead of spraying?  Anything in particular you've done that works for peas?
* Am I missing anything?

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.