Bean Discovery

So my mother has just informed me that my mystery beans are not "black eyed peas" as I thought.


She says those are "purple hulls" and of course mother knows best.  Not to mention all the years she dragged me as a kid to go "bean picking" in Patterson Pass farms every season.  Up at the crack of dawn to drive from Oakland to Patterson where my parents, sisters (if my mom could make them go) and I ride  behind the farmers tractor which would drop us off in the field of our choice (usually my mother's).  We would go out into the various fields and pick pounds ( like 25 lbs.) of various fresh beans and sometimes other vegetables and fruits.  Yes, Mom was a little excessive always preparing for "just in case".  Now I'm always putting away for "just in case" :).

    

(Who'd have thunk I would love to garden after all that torture)

We'd usually be done by about 11 am when it began to get warm and would spend the rest of the day shelling and snapping beans and Mom would freeze them.  So as I said Mom should know what the mysterious beans are.  But since I'm hard headed, I still had to check....

Ok, so if they are "purple hulls" then why aren't mine turning completely purple?

So further investigation is necessary here...right bean, wrong color...ok so i'll leave them on the vine a little longer and see what happens.

By the way Purple Hulls like there close cousin the Black Eyed Pea is a southern pea that like the warm weather. According to the University of Florida the 

"Purple Hull Group                                

Seed pods show some purple coloring, either at tip or all over. Seeds may or may not be crowded. Usually white peas with buff, brown, or pink eyes.
Examples: Jackson Purple Hull, Dixie Queen, Herbken, Knuckle Purple Hull, Pinkeye Purple Hull, Purple Tip Crowder, Purple Hull, Big Boy Purple Hull, Coronet, and Crimson."

So, Mom has it, they are a variety of Purple Hull Peas.  But Mothers are always right, right?

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!

On to the next...

Garden Update

The garden is reaching a transition point where I really need to pull up all of the lettuce type plants and plant some hardier things in their place (or not).

Eggplants

(Japanese Eggplant)

Peppers

Ok I have to admit that I ran out of room in the garden and had to plant this bell pepper plant in a pot.  But it's doing great especially since I took it off the deck ( I noticed one of the bells had gotten a bit of sun scald, so I moved it to a somewhat shadier spot).

(Poor Bell outside the garden in a pot)

(Sun Scald - Where the sun has burned the fruit.). This can be prevented by making sure the fruit is well protected wite plenty of leaves and making sure that the plant is well watered so the leaves don't wilt when the sun is at it's hottest.  Sun Scald doesn't ruin the fruit, however that spot is usually mushy and and soft.  I will usually pick the fruit and cut out the soft spot or donate the whole thing to the compost bin.

These peppers can be eaten at any stage.  They will go from green to red (this particular type). The red peppers will have a much sweeter taste than the green.

This little guy looks to be on his way to turning red, so he won't get very big.  But the little ones taste just as good as the bigger ones, so I won't be discriminating in the kitchen.

(Mild Poblano Peppers)  I'm a real wuss when it comes to hot peppers, but I usually grow them to put in my pickles every year because my mom and husband like 'em spicy. No pickles this year so I can grow mild flavored peppers for salsas and sauces that I can eat.

 (Mild Chiles)

Squash

So I made a poor planting decision by planting this squash in front of my cucumber plant.  You can see the cucumber leaves peaking out next to the fence.  I had to make a decision and dramatically cut back this plant although I hated to do it. So what you see now is a quarter of the plant that it originally was. It was also beginning to encroach on my bean plants on the bottom right.

The trellised Butternut Squash experiment still seems to be doing well.

Beans

(Various Shelling Beans - Cranberry, Black Peas, Navy, Edamame etc)

(Soy Beans)

(Green Beans - lettuce in front that needs to be put out of it's misery, and a very vibrant Sweet Basil plant to the far right)

Plants on Their Way Out

(Left to Right - Arugula, Broccoli, Mustard Greens and Collard Greens)  The Collard Greens will be staying

Onions and Peas

After realizing that my onions were a bust, I decided to dig them up this weekend to make space for more goodies.  To my surprise the the bulbs were only about an inch in diameter. What the heck is going on here? Ok, I consider myself moderately knowledgeable about home gardening and I've never seen this happen.  Hmm these definitely weren't Walla Walla onions.  When it finally stops raining here, I'll post a picture and maybe we can figure this out.

The good news is I was able to harden off my Black Eyed Peas and Soy Bean plants and get them planted before the weekend thunderstorms.  They seemed to have survived the downpours well enough.  This week I am hoping to start hardening off the Moth Beans (which I have never grown before) and depending on this odd weather the cucumbers maybe.