Summer Harvest: Yard Long Beans and Black Eyed Peas

It's harvest time at the Fair Share Garden. In recent weeks we've been picking yard long beans and black eyed peas. These yard long beans are from seeds that I purchased from Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO). The seed pack included both the green and purple/black yard long variety. My beans at home have not take off quite as nicely as these at the Fair Share Garden. They really get long when they have a nice fence to grow on. I eat them fresh. One of our volunteers at the garden told me that she used to cook them whole in green curry sauce.

We've also been harvesting black eyed peas. We have been harvesting them when the shells turn brown and the peas inside feel hard. It is best not to wait until they are getting all wrinkled and withered from the rain. They tend to get moldy and difficult to shell when that happens. Here we are shelling black eyed peas. I don't particularly care for them much myself, but my husband likes them boiled and put over corn bread. It must be a southern thing. The beans have to be soaked over night before being cooked.



Here we are at home shelling black eyed peas.