![\"Veggies_22AUG13\"](\"http:\/\/cocktailfarmers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Veggies_22AUG13.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis is on top of an additional 25 Roma tomatoes, 2 Kellogg, 2 Brandywine & half pint of Sungolds that are up on the counter.\u00a0 And I’m not seeing Stella Caroline <\/a>this week.\u00a0 I wonder how much it would cost me to FedEx….?<\/p>\n The green beans in the photo are Kentucky Wonder pole beans.\u00a0 I have been calling them Kentucky runner beans, which is only half true (they are running away from us, so that part is true.)\u00a0 Kentucky Wonder is a very old heirloom that has been known by many other names over the years, including\u00a0 American Sickle Pole, Eastern Wonder, Egg Harbor, Georgia Monstrous Pole, Improved Southern Prolific, Missouri Prolific, Old Homestead Pole and Texas Pole.\u00a0 An online catalog describes them as, “…..very reliable, early maturing, and productive.”\u00a0 They should really use the word\u00a0“prolific” in the bean name, because that might give me pause when calculating how many to plant.\u00a0 I would also rewrite\u00a0the description\u00a0to say, “Very reliable, early maturing, and will bury you and everyone you know in beans.”\u00a0 But this is mostly my fault –\u00a0I put in\u00a06 hills of the beans, with 8 bean plants per hill.\u00a0 And I’m pretty sure every one of those suckers came up.\u00a0 So, 48 plants.\u00a0 Next year, for the love of Pete, someone please remind me that this is too many when I’m all excited in the middle of May to plant the beans.\u00a0 I need someone to come stand in the field and shout at me when I start trying to rationalize and say things like, “But they might not all come up!” or “What if some of the plants don’t produce?”\u00a0 They will all produce, apparently.<\/p>\n Underneath our Kentucky beans are our usual purple bush beans, and to the right are Roma tomatoes (totally out of control this year, the plants are tipping over<\/em> from the weight of the tomatoes) and the left is a bowl of Sungolds with a Brandywine for a little change of color.\u00a0 There are too many Sungolds to fit in the ceramic pint container I usually keep them in.<\/p>\n So this batch of beans will be the first batch that I freeze.\u00a0 The best way to preserve beans through freezing is to blanch them first, to kill off any bacteria or enzymes that might cause them to become discolored during the freezing process.\u00a0 I usually submerge them for 3 – 4 minutes, then plunge them into ice water and dump them into a strainer before laying them out on towels to fully dry before freezing them in freezer bags.\u00a0 My online research tells me that they are best used within a 10-month period, but I have found that they are fine up to and past a year later.\u00a0 Why yes, we do have beans frozen from last year in our freezer, however did you guess?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today’s haul: This is on top of an additional 25 Roma tomatoes, 2 Kellogg, 2 Brandywine & half pint of Sungolds that are up on the counter.\u00a0 And I’m not seeing Stella Caroline this week.\u00a0 I wonder how much it would cost me to FedEx….? The green beans in the photo are Kentucky Wonder pole … Continue reading The bounty continues<\/span>