Beans beans beans

Green beans that is. We were doing a little garage cleaning yesterday afternoon, and when we got done I went out to the back yard to have a can of pop and sit for a few minutes. While we were sitting there out of the corner of my eye I saw the bean patch and told the kids to go see if they were ready to be picked. Boy were they ready!

The kids and Dad pulled all the plants and I picked the beans off. We don't bend over to pick beans, we find that it only results in poor spirits and sore backs. We just pull the plants and pick the beans sitting in a lawn chair even though we loose some of the production of the plants.

Part way through the picking of the beans Grandma came to visit. She is always such a trooper when she comes and just jumps right into whatever we are doing. She asked if this was the end of our beans but it was the beginning of beans for us. We planted many, many rows starting early this spring but they just didn't do very well. A good majority of them didn't even germinate. The first beans we got in early July we sold and then we haven't had any more. Dad put in another patch the end of July and these did very well. Must not have been the right weather for them the beginning of the summer.

We sat for about three hours picking beans off the plants and then snapping the ends off. Dancer and Spark cut them into pieces. The plants all go to the goats who are more than willing to eat up the leftovers. Before throwing them in the corral, Dancer got out Scott the rabbit to enjoy a few morsels and she snapped this cute picture. After we were done, our living lawn vacuum, Millie, came out to clean up the leaves and beans that were left behind.

Last night after dark I started freezing them. The total was 28 pints before running out of freezer bags. I picked up more bags today in town and will finish the huge bowl that is still left tonight. It looks like it will be about eight or so more pints. We are going to have the taste of summer even when it is below zero this winter!