Tag: Beans

Plant Pole Beans to Save Space and Increase Yields

By Will Bonsall Photos courtesy of Yaicha Cowell A major reason for preferring pole beans over bush types is to save space. By exploiting your garden’s third dimension, you can harvest much more food from a smaller footprint. Of course, all good things come with a price and in this case it is the extra

Read More »

Cluster or Hill Planting

  Clusters of corn, with beans interplanted   Onions grow in clusters of three or four with up to 10 inches between. By Will Bonsall Photos by the author I once watched a fellow go to great pains to build a mound of at least 5 gallons in volume, which he neatly flattened on top

Read More »

Dry Beans

By the time these Orlando’s beans have ripened, the leaves of the supporting amaranth will have dropped to expose the dry pods. Photo by Will Bonsall By Will Bonsall Ordinarily I advise people with limited garden space not to focus on growing staple crops such as grain and oilseeds that are less expensive to buy

Read More »

A Trellis Primer

Photo 1. Pole and crossbars used to trellis beans, peas and cucumbers Photo 2. A spike inserted through two holes where crossbar ends overlap holds crossbars together. By Tom Vigue Photos by the author A number of common garden crops benefit greatly from trellising. Crops that do not directly contact the soil and that have vastly improved

Read More »

Small Scale Processing

Threshing Jon Strieff’s ‘Sirvinta’ winter wheat at the Common Ground Country Fair. Photos by Geoff Johnson By Mark Fulford The lack of right-sized grain and bean processing equipment for Maine’s many small farms is a decades-long problem that is especially acute today, as demand for locally-grown dry crops is strong and enthusiasm high among both

Read More »

Fava Beans

By Roberta Bailey Fava beans (Vicia faha) are an Old World legume, originating in the Near East. They were probably the first domesticated food crop. From the Neolithic period onward, they appear in myth, Egyptian tombs, and archeological sites of the Mediterranean basin, China, and Northern Africa. Prior to the discovery of the Americas, favas

Read More »

Fava Favorites

By Roberta Bailey Over the last few years, I have been discovering shell beans. Their diverse flavors and uses are well worth the time that I once considered to be the reason that I didn’t grow them. This year I have discovered fava or broad beans. I tried growing them once, about 15 years ago,

Read More »

Shell Beans

Drawing by Toki Oshima By Roberta Bailey For the first time in almost, 20 years of preserving food, I had a surplus of canned green beans and tomato sauce. I had planned on putting up a little less food as my son, Isak, was leaving for college. I hadn’t planned on my daughter having swim

Read More »

White Runner Beans

White runner beans look and taste like lima beans, but are plumper and grow better in cooler weather. Top photo by Yaicha Cowell. Lower photo by Arika Bready. By Will Bonsall A few decades ago while I was helping an elderly farmer friend, Orlando Small, with his haying, he chanced to comment on his fine

Read More »

Harvest Kitchen Dry Beans

Sam Birch grows more than 100 varieties of beans and displays them at the Common Ground Country Fair Exhibition Hall each fall. English photo. Dry beans at Common Ground’s Exhibition Hall. English photo. By Roberta Bailey “Beans, beans, the magical fruit … ” I have been thinking that Jack (of beanstalk repute) wasn’t so crazy

Read More »
Categories
Scroll to Top