Black Beans, yes please!

I did mention about our black beans in a previous post but I think they need one all their own as well. We received some black bean seeds from a friend several years ago. We planted them, and got enough to grow more the next year but not many to eat. The next year, we shared many of them, then planted the rest, again only ended up with a few to share and a few to eat.

This year we were determined to get TONS. So, we planted three long rows of them!

While planting them I remember telling them, "you will be burgers, and you will be tacos, and you will go in soup!" Haha

We even had some to share this year as well and made up bags of them for Sherwood Park Seedy Sunday along with our excess arugula and radish seeds. Watch for that event in March as well as the Edmonton Seedy Sunday, if you're in the Edmonton area!

The beans sprouted pretty quickly and grew amazingly well.

All the pests went for other things and left the black beans alone almost completely! We knew we would finally have our bumper crop of black beans we always wanted.

I'm pretty sure what we have will last us through the winter and maybe even then some. We plan to do three big rows every year from now on though regardless. It's such an awesome crop!

We plan to store some dry and to pressure can some as well so you can keep an eye out for that! The delicious dishes we will make with these beans are going to be epic!

The plants begin to turn yellow and die off in late summer and by mid September they're dry and ready to be picked.

We harvested them on Saturday and have spent our days since shucking the beans, but we still aren't done! Hopefully by the end of the day we will finish haha

The kids have even joined in on the fun! :)

It's hard to really show just how many there are, it's incredible! For now they're just sitting out flat so they can dry really well before we start canning and storing them.

The shells and debris from these beans is excellent carbon for the compost bin too! Since we are all out of dry leaves we really needed it! LoL

I hope you enjoyed my post. I plan to keep it up Although our winters are no where near as exciting as our summers!!

Take care :)