The Life Cycle of Garden Beans | Huh?

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I mentioned this has been an odd summer. No tomatoes due to f*&^ing deer. Very little yellow squash. Plumb forgot to plant okra. More eggplant than you can shake a stick at. Ditto zucchini. And then there are the bush beans.

I have been growing bush beans for many more years than I care to count. I’ve never seen anything like this.

My records from our 2008 Cincinnati garden. Good God! Planted the end of May. No wonder I was desparate to move to The South again!

Everyone knows what gets planted two weeks after the last frost date. Everyone also knows that most of those veggies germinate in 5-7 days, take a few weeks to get going, and you’re picking in about 50 or so days. Everyone also knows that you pick for about three to four weeks or so and then, as the summer has heated up and the nights are warm, things begin to trail off. You can coax another week or two out of many things but that’s it.

We finished putting up the last of the zucchini in the form of 15 loaves of zucchini bread on July 8th. Typical for Mississippi. And that should have been after the time the beans were finished. It also indicates that I planted these things the last week of April.

It is August 20th– 16 weeks since I planted!– and I’m getting ready to freeze more beans. Mind, through all of those weeks there were very few beans to pick until about a week or so ago. A few yellow beans for salads, and I think one meal.

What happened? I have no idea. My knowledge of biology is fairly good. I know this b/c I just finished throwing away seven years’ worth of post-graduate biology-related stuff that had my name on it. Plus, growing veggies is not rocket science, despite what the experts insist. It ain’t even HAM radio science. I am absolutely clueless.

Temperature. Water. Sunlight. Plus some N-P-K, and some minors. Which among these factors and their interactions differed so much so for beans, but yet didn’t affect the zucchini?

Three days!

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Holy moly. Here’s my excuse. I am quite certain many of you can identify with this situation.

As you know, I spent considerable time and energy getting the apartment ready for the new tenant. In the process, I removed quite a bit of stuff (that’s the nice word). I sorted the stuff into two broad categories: craft & sewing-related stuff, and other stuff.

Some crafty stuff

I put the craft stuff in the bunkhouse by the TV. I’ll turn on TCM and sort through it at some point. The other stuff is just piled up in the living room. Unattractive.

So. All of this stuff has to go somewhere. Where is the obvious place to store stuff? Obviously, the Storeroom in the Bunkhouse. Unfortunately, there is no room in the store room. So I’ve been cleaning out the Storeroom.

Those who know me know that this is a difficult task. I am of the mind that there is a potential use for everything outdated. Why, just the other day Mr. Big Food said he was going to have to go buy an ethernet cable for his new office. No, no! I have a plastic tub of various cables and cords in the Storeroom! Miss M has taken a liking to ice skating. Why, what’s tucked away over there in the corner of the Storeroom? My 45 year old ice skates! Sure I can clean them up and send them to you.

So that’s my excuse.

Sunshine, Packaged by Mother Nature

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One more batch and that will be the end of the lemon cucumbers. That’s always a sad day for me. But life, and gardens, move on.

Summer

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Purdy, ain’t it?

Froze beans yesterday. That would be yesterday, August 15th. You are correct in thinking that ain’t right. Details to follow.

Tiger is not coming out today

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Do I believe it?

124° seems a little over the top if you ask me. And yet…

Plus…

That’s a Wunderground station about six miles from the Farm.

Let me also say that beyond the obvious of 11 degrees, 113, 124– what’s the difference?

So I put on my long pants

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and I gathered up my mallet and I went out there and wacked the weather station up side the head. Seemed to work.

FYI: Atlas Stations are worthless pieces of s87t. I spent money so you don’t have to.

What y’all have been waiting for–

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a tour of The Apartment!

  • for morning coffee in a few months
  • open the door
  • welcome center w/propoganda
  • bedroom
  • nice drapes
  • closet
  • kitchen
  • LR
  • breakfast nook
  • workspace
  • welcome table
  • stuff to nibble
  • from the garden
  • space

The new tenant, Dr. D, says he’s quite comfortable up there. Even appreciates the amenities of the bench and weights. Good call Daughter C & The J-Man! I’m just happy it’s over & done with.

Big Life Bullet Points

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Box of crackers for scale
  • We are cucumber rich. I used this phrase in a conversation with Joanie at SuperLu this morning. She laughed. (SuperLu is the grocery store SuperValu. The “Va” on the sign on the side of the building were burnt out for a long time, hence, SuperLu.) I may drop in with a small bag of cukes for her tomorrow along with the recipe for Spicy Frozen Cucumbers. Mr. Big Food will be taking in a bag for Kelly tomorrow, too.
  • Reflection. How great is it to know the names of the people ringing you up at the store every Sunday? And not just because you look at their name tags. Mark rang us up at the Pig. James took our stuff out to the truck. That’s a thing– folks carting your groceries to your truck. Not at all unusual to hear, “James. Come up front for carryout.” James is the assistant manager, by the way.
  • This Bonnie being with baby business is interesting. I was starting to have my doubts. By my calculations, she would be due late this month and so I expected to see some signs by now. SueK, did you tell me that wasn’t the case? Can’t remember. Just yesterday I *think* noticed a pair of teats. We’ll see.
  • Speaking of The Dumbies, as Mr. Big Food calls them, they’re getting on nicely with Gentleman Jack. (And he is that, by the way!) Jack tries to put his big head through the fence to nozzle them but it doesn’t fit. Clyde’s does. It’s sweet to see them be so friendly.
  • Among the 500+ crappy old books that Daughter C and The J-Man left behind in the apartment were three book boxes full of those in which I had an interest. I cataloged two boxes yesterday putting my library of crappy old books at 3419. One was Emily Post’s Mrs. Price Post’s Etiquette: “The Blue Book of Social Usage”. My God, she must have been a bi*ch in real life. You should see what she had to say about putting dinner napkins to the side of the forks. Called it vulgar. Let’s confirm my impression.
Chorus girls?
  • Another Daughter C left was Jericho: The South Beheld (1974) written by James Dickey (Deliverance) and featuring the watercolors of Hubert Shuptrine. I haven’t read the words but the art is beautiful. Here’s a review from GoodReads:

Shuptrine’s watercolors, as Dickey admits, are not designed to “go with” Dickey’s text, but if you take Dickey up on his opening invitation (to flit invisible through the South with eyes and self wide-open), they ARE the landscape. Published in the mid-Seventies, it’s a bit too nostalgic about its subject–I am not sure Dickey’s eyes are THAT wide-open–but it is a ambiguously beautiful book, and some of Dickey’s best writing is herein.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/963846.Jericho
  • Supposedly there’s a heat wave a-comin’. One model is forecasting a temperature of 100 degrees tomorrow. The others are more conservative– high of 90-92 Monday and 91-94 Tuesday. Here’s what The Government has to say:

Monday Mostly sunny, with a high near 96. Heat index values as high as 107. Calm wind.

  • Geeze. A whole new challenge has just presented itself. TTYL.

Attention Miss M and Daughter & The J-Man

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If you’re reading this, could you tell me what the switches to the left of the sink in the apartment turn on? Can’t figure it out. Thanks!

Recovery?

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SueK asked yesterday if I’d recovered from Drudge Work Monday. Today is Thursday, and no I have not.

This is how exhausted I am. One day this week (??) I came down with a load of white cotton curtains that needed to be bleached and washed. So I started the machine, put the detergent in and poured bleach in the tub in addition to the bleach dispenser. Then I let the water run to dilute the bleach a little before I put the curtains in. Later, while I was down here for lunch– and by that I mean in the Big House as contrasted to in the Apartment– and I heard the washer stop. Perfect timing. Walked into the laundry room and there were the curtains sitting on top of the washing machine.

But! The Apartment is shaping up nicely, although I just discovered that for some reason I have no queen sized sheets.

Normal– such as it is here on the Farm– will commence shortly.

Also commencing shortly will be the fun in seeing how a guy from northern New Jersey takes to the rural Deep South. Bless his heart.

Oh! And get this. The forecast for next week is for highs in the high 90s– that’s like 97-98. Not the heat index, the temperature. Welcome to Mississippi Dr. NJ.

Yay! Drudge work Monday

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Yesterday I texted Kat & Miss M asking what, beyond the obvious, did “furnished” apartment mean. I then listed things that were in the apartment and asked what I was missing. Miss M responded that it needed a can opener (forgot to include in the list). Kat responded with links to sites advising folks how to set up AirB&Bs. Boring, boringer, boringest.

A bison in Arkansas

Every single one of these sites tells one that beige is the best color for everything, do not have personal items on display, for God’s sake do NOT have religious items laying about, and decorate with as much flair as a slug. I disagree. I like to see a little personality and local nick-naks or color about. Granted, a couple of B&Bs we have stayed in took this too far. The one filled with Cabbage Patch Dolls was creepy. The one featuring the bison and stuffed with so much stuff collected on the owner’s travels that you had to walk single file through the lanes was a bit much, but still, if I wanted to stay in a place with no personality, I’d stay in a hotel.

The sites about furnished apartments were the same. One of them even counseled that people who let furnished apartments are told to make them boring so if you rent one, bring your own pictures, etc. to liven the place up. Geeze.

That’s all I’ve got this morning.

Recipe: Spicy Frozen Cucumbers | You could set your calendar by it!

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This particular reposted recipe was posted August 4, 2015. Once, and sometimes twice a year Mr. Big Food and I set aside everything else to make a few batches of Spicy Frozen Cucumbers. This year, I think we still had some in February or March.

  • for the jalapeños
  • cukes wilting

Also made a batch of pickled jalapeños.

DSCN3917

Spicy Frozen Cucumbers are God’s Gift to the cucumber rich and pickle weary.

Spicy Frozen cucumbers are what you do when you still have cucumbers and cannot possibly entertain the idea of making more pickles.

Spicy Frozen Cucumbers are a delight as a salad late in the fall when you want to rekindle a bit of Summer in front of a cozy fire. (They last for months but trust me, unless you live in the frozen tundra above the Mason-Dixon line, you tire of frozen cucumbers and long for lettuce come about January. To every thing there is a season, blah blah. So we enjoy them earlier rather than later. But we live well below the M-D line.)

Believe it or not (!) they come out crispy– that’s on account of the fact that they were frozen and you eat them before they are fully defrosted.

We’ve made two double batches (i.e., double the recipe below) yielding eight plastic freezer containers of two cups each.

Pictured above is what the cucumbers look like as they await disbursement into the freezer containers.

SPICY FROZEN CUCUMBERS

4 C sliced pickling cucumbers, 3-4 inches long (about 12-14 cukes), washed and sliced thin unpeeled
2 large onions, sliced thin
1 Tbsp salt
1 C sugar
½ C cider vinegar
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 Tbsp whole mustard seeds (preferably white)

Combine cucumbers, onions, and salt in a glass or ceramic bowl, and let stand 2 to 4 hours to extract moisture. Rinse and drain vegetables well, blotting with paper towels to absorb all moisture. Combine sugar, vinegar, turmeric, and mustard seeds, and mix well until the sugar dissolves completely, about 10 minutes. Stir in vegetables carefully. Pour cucumber mixture into clean freezer containers, leaving 1 inch headspace for expansion. Cap, seal, and freeze. “These will keep up to 1 year in freezer.” To use, thaw about 4 hours in the refrigerator. Serve chilled.

Wack it upside with a hammer

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You may recall that I’ve had some problems with the Weather Monitor.

Turns out, it’s the sensor. You need to wack it upside with a hammer and wait about 30 seconds, and lookie there. There was but not longer is a signal.

Worthless piece of crap. I’ve a good mind to bang on the fence post.

This thing cost serious money. And if you search for problems with it, everyone has problems.

When it works, it’s great. But it’s a worthless piece of crap. I’m gonna go bang on it and see it I can’t bring it to its senses.

Wish me luck.

More than half-way

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  • Stuff
  • Living and work areas
  • Breakfast nook
  • Closeup

I thought the plant was a nice touch.

Not counting those that belonged to me but were residing in the Apartment, my library of crappy old books has increased by 520. I counted. I’ll get around to inventorying them some day.