I picked my first large batch of soy beans today a.k.a. edamame. We are having a wedding shower for my daughter and a salad bar is on the menu. Some of the items will come from the garden, some from Cedar Grove Cheese. The beef is courtesy of the Black Angus that we bought last fall from a local farmer. Not enough lettuce in my patch so that had to be bought in mass quantity. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and kohlrabi all were grown on the soil we live on.
The soy beans make it to our table much better now that we have reduce the surplus populations of chipmunks. Two years ago they stripped the plants clean in less than two days. Last year I left a few beans on the plants to mature and go to seed for this year's crop. The seeds all germinated very well. I think I will try to not buy any seed this year and just rely on the homegrown variety.
Showing posts with label edamame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label edamame. Show all posts
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Friday, August 10, 2012
A Whole Day of Rain
We got 1.5" of rain in the rain gauge during the last 24 hour period! It was a nice slow rain that took to the dry ground. It is (amazingly) still dry out there even with all that moisture. I loved being woke up by a rain storm outside the window.
We had cloudy skies this morning which brought the sunshine in by mid-morning. With it came wind. I stopped at the lake front during lunch and watch the waves crash over the breakwater at South Shore Marina. The air show is this weekend, so we had a little overhead entertainment as well. There were a handful of people who chose this little spot to enjoy some water watching as well as enjoy the company of strangers.
I bagged up my onions tonight and hung them in the basement. I weighed them and found that I have 30 pounds of onions! I thought I was being optimistic saving so many mesh bags, but I filled three large orange bags quite easily. I will be able to share my bounty this year. I sliced up one with eggplant and zucchini and fried the whole slices dipped in egg and flour on the griddle with butter. The results were like having a lower fat, less batter onion disc.
Tomorrow, I will have to pick green beans and soy. I had a handful of soy which I cooked up and put in a tomato salad for lunch. Edamame is a nice addition to salads or just eating with a bit of salt. (August 3, 2011) http://gardeninggwen.blogspot.com/2011/08/soybeans-aka-edamame.html I grew half of my soy beans from new seed and half from seed that I ripened on the plants and harvested dry last fall. Both plots germinated and grew equally well, so I think that seed saving was successful with this crop.
My neighbor has shared his early tomatoes with me as well as enough to share with the other neighbors. His garden is quite large even after shortening it 20' or so this past year. He grew a row of beans the full length of the garden which is well over 40' long. They have already canned and frozen all they will use. I passed the word on to others and offered the suggestion to donate to Harvest for the Hungry as they were opting to rip out the plants to stop the harvest. Several soup kitchens and food pantries are also nearby, so I think they have abandoned the thoughts of pulling the plants. They also have several cherry type tomato plants which are producing heavily. I took a bag to work and put them on the basket on the corner of my desk. My coworkers did a good job of eating them all.
I am thankful for some cool weather as it is time to can some French beans this weekend. I will eagerly share the results of that job.
We had cloudy skies this morning which brought the sunshine in by mid-morning. With it came wind. I stopped at the lake front during lunch and watch the waves crash over the breakwater at South Shore Marina. The air show is this weekend, so we had a little overhead entertainment as well. There were a handful of people who chose this little spot to enjoy some water watching as well as enjoy the company of strangers.
I bagged up my onions tonight and hung them in the basement. I weighed them and found that I have 30 pounds of onions! I thought I was being optimistic saving so many mesh bags, but I filled three large orange bags quite easily. I will be able to share my bounty this year. I sliced up one with eggplant and zucchini and fried the whole slices dipped in egg and flour on the griddle with butter. The results were like having a lower fat, less batter onion disc.
Tomorrow, I will have to pick green beans and soy. I had a handful of soy which I cooked up and put in a tomato salad for lunch. Edamame is a nice addition to salads or just eating with a bit of salt. (August 3, 2011) http://gardeninggwen.blogspot.com/2011/08/soybeans-aka-edamame.html I grew half of my soy beans from new seed and half from seed that I ripened on the plants and harvested dry last fall. Both plots germinated and grew equally well, so I think that seed saving was successful with this crop.
My neighbor has shared his early tomatoes with me as well as enough to share with the other neighbors. His garden is quite large even after shortening it 20' or so this past year. He grew a row of beans the full length of the garden which is well over 40' long. They have already canned and frozen all they will use. I passed the word on to others and offered the suggestion to donate to Harvest for the Hungry as they were opting to rip out the plants to stop the harvest. Several soup kitchens and food pantries are also nearby, so I think they have abandoned the thoughts of pulling the plants. They also have several cherry type tomato plants which are producing heavily. I took a bag to work and put them on the basket on the corner of my desk. My coworkers did a good job of eating them all.
I am thankful for some cool weather as it is time to can some French beans this weekend. I will eagerly share the results of that job.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Soybeans (aka edamame)
Soybeans are relatively new to the home gardener's planting list. McDonald's made them more popular with their Asian salads as one of the toppings. My first exposure to them was several Christmas' ago. My sister had a foreign exchange student from Japan. Coming from a large family means we do not have a sit-down dinner but a potluck. Our Japanese visitor brought some things that her mother had sent from home to share. Wasabi peas was one (the beer drinkers enjoyed those) and edamame was the other. They looked like hairy pea pods with just a couple lima bean shaped seeds inside. The outsides of the pods were salted so as you popped the inside of the beans in your mouth, the salt on your fingers seasoned the bite. They were also wonderful with beer.
Three years ago or so, Pine Tree Gardens made these available to the home grower in the Asian vegetables section and called them Beer lover's soybeans. I planted them and had great success. It was a small row which provided about two good pickings. I advise using all your bean seeds in one year as the germination rate fell noticeably on my hold overs. The next year I planted them I did them in a larger row and harvested a small handful of beans as something else harvested them the day before I was ready to pick them. Very disappointing to find small, empty stems waiting. Year three I planted one row 8' long followed by a second row two weeks later. I was able to track the timing of the invaders which turned out to be many small field mice. I won't disclose how I found out, but they were dispatched without poison and the owl found many of them before the night was over and fed himself on a field mouse buffet. Ah, the circle of life! I did much better with my harvest and the owl has continued to stay close to the garden.
This year I went back to a single row and have just harvested the first batch. I have acquired a few field mice before the harvest so I think we have cut them off at the pass this year. I picked a gallon pail of them which are simmering on the stove top as I write.
The soybeans are cooked in the pods until the color starts to change to a slightly duller green. This will only take about 10-15 minutes of simmering once you get it up to temperature. Drain and cool them rapidly, using ice water is a good idea. Drain again and salt the pods with a course sea salt or Kosher flake salt. Pop them open and deposit them right in your mouth. Enjoying a beer on the side is optional but recommended.
The year of my crop failure (aka the year the mouse ate my beans) I inquired with the Hmong farmers at my local market if they sold them. They only offered them as dried beans in the fall. I didn't check the grocery stores but did find them last fall in the frozen food section. They were in the pod so I was able to enjoy them in their closest to fresh form as possible. They can also be used on salads, entrees, and many other dishes in between.
Soy has been put into many things which has caused allergy problems for some people and you will see them on the list of allergy items on food labels. It is recommended that you limit the amount of soy young people consume for this reason. Soy is a natural sort of estrogen replacement for women of a certain age. I do fall into this group so find that adding a few to my diet is probably a good thing as I haven't done the soy thing to death this far in my life. Enjoy soy no matter what your gender and I do recommend that you wash them down with a beer.
Soy bean plants
Raw soy beans
Soybeans cooked, chilled, and salted with my favorite summer side. Shameless promotion for Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy...
Three years ago or so, Pine Tree Gardens made these available to the home grower in the Asian vegetables section and called them Beer lover's soybeans. I planted them and had great success. It was a small row which provided about two good pickings. I advise using all your bean seeds in one year as the germination rate fell noticeably on my hold overs. The next year I planted them I did them in a larger row and harvested a small handful of beans as something else harvested them the day before I was ready to pick them. Very disappointing to find small, empty stems waiting. Year three I planted one row 8' long followed by a second row two weeks later. I was able to track the timing of the invaders which turned out to be many small field mice. I won't disclose how I found out, but they were dispatched without poison and the owl found many of them before the night was over and fed himself on a field mouse buffet. Ah, the circle of life! I did much better with my harvest and the owl has continued to stay close to the garden.
This year I went back to a single row and have just harvested the first batch. I have acquired a few field mice before the harvest so I think we have cut them off at the pass this year. I picked a gallon pail of them which are simmering on the stove top as I write.
The soybeans are cooked in the pods until the color starts to change to a slightly duller green. This will only take about 10-15 minutes of simmering once you get it up to temperature. Drain and cool them rapidly, using ice water is a good idea. Drain again and salt the pods with a course sea salt or Kosher flake salt. Pop them open and deposit them right in your mouth. Enjoying a beer on the side is optional but recommended.
The year of my crop failure (aka the year the mouse ate my beans) I inquired with the Hmong farmers at my local market if they sold them. They only offered them as dried beans in the fall. I didn't check the grocery stores but did find them last fall in the frozen food section. They were in the pod so I was able to enjoy them in their closest to fresh form as possible. They can also be used on salads, entrees, and many other dishes in between.
Soy has been put into many things which has caused allergy problems for some people and you will see them on the list of allergy items on food labels. It is recommended that you limit the amount of soy young people consume for this reason. Soy is a natural sort of estrogen replacement for women of a certain age. I do fall into this group so find that adding a few to my diet is probably a good thing as I haven't done the soy thing to death this far in my life. Enjoy soy no matter what your gender and I do recommend that you wash them down with a beer.
Soy bean plants
Raw soy beans
Soybeans cooked, chilled, and salted with my favorite summer side. Shameless promotion for Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy...
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