beans beans the magical fruit

     With the dog days of summer behind us for the forseeable future, thoughts and feelings drift towards the harvest season. the late summer bounty. a settling down to the harvest table if you will. a time to gather and enjoy the company of friends, heck, have a weekend. a time for more reflection on the season thus far. The days are not feeling so long and then too short for all the work that needs to get done, but long enough.
The mornings have been refreshingly cold. My feet begin to feel chilled around 4:45 am, and I awaken to tuck the blankets around my bare feetsies and think about getting up. The sun is still in the dreamtime of the morning, and so I follow the sun. An hour later I am awakened again, this time to see an amazing red and orange band hovering above the mountain tops. Atmospheric gases, pollution and particles give a most dramatic show for the early crowd to witness. another hour later the round sun appears- red and orange like its opening act, but more focused and brilliant, charging ahead gathering momentum as the a.m. hours pass.


green and yellow beans: Leonardis Organics. this is a good time for fresh beans in lake county. milder daytime temps and greater relative humidity make for happier bean plants. picked monday morning while the sun warmed my back and a humming melody. stir fry , salad with herbs ,

fresh soybean: Full Moon. first time Ive seen a soy bean grow. Neat plant. with plentiful water exhibited running growth habit, beans seemed to begin drying just as they began to plump, very short window for harvest. a variety of plump green and yellowing, and not so plump green pods for your enjoyment. try my favorite and simple boiled edamame recipe, did someone say succotash?

arava melon: Full Moon. what a difference a week makes. plentiful harvest of melons this week. delicious and juicy. packed with sugar and fiber. best to be eaten on its own as it may cause some digestive disturbance if combined with other foods. makes a great breakfast jumpstart. zing. what kind of flavors do you taste?

lemon cucumber: Full Moon. another week of these cute and convenient little ones. After saying this was the tastiest crop last week, I found some bitter bites. uh oh. no bueno. could be caused by extreme temperature fluctutaions. cukes are muy sensitivo to the slightest stress. and certain bitter flavored chemicals increase with stress, tho the lemon cucumber is usually fine. please let me know if you got any bitter skinned cukes, one should not normally have to peel these, nor suffer a bitter bite.
delicious in salad with cilantro, dill, garlic, vinegar, sweet/spicy peppers. choose your own adventure.

red slicer tomato: Full Moon. steady supply of these sweet and salad ready toms. great on open face sandwich too. nothin like fresh tomato. lycopene is a bright red carotenoid or phytochemical that gives the tomato its color and latin name roots (lycopersicum)

sungold cherry tomato: Bio Farm. pop em, roast em with pasta, blend em gazpacho style

summer squash: Full Moon. crookneck and zucchini,

on rotation this week:
okra: Full Moon

watermelon: Full Moon