holiday beans

HOLIDAY BEANS

these beans are called christmas lima beans
they are the best beans ive ever eaten
i discovered them from an organic seed company that
featured them in their catalog last year

in this picture from my recent crop they were picked early
so some were immature and dont have the color
that the mature bean does

in fact last year when we were at the farmers market
in san francisco at the ferry building the company
that i bought the beans from off the internet was there
and i bought a package of them
here is their website

we brought them home and cooked them
but they sure are better when you pull them
fresh off the vines and eat them that day

those vines are huge
they grow over ten foot high and are real thick
and look good in the garden
i actually use them to shade out the peppers from the
hot summer sun

last year i planted them but the freeze wiped them out
before they produced their large bean inside its pod
they are really made for a warmer climate

so when i plant them i know its a gamble because if
we get an early freeze they will get wiped out
even if i cover them with a thick row cover

its kinda sad because you plant them in april and
you nourish them all summer and fall just hoping
that the weather will cooperate until they all
mature

this weekend we got down to 29 degrees here since we
are in a low spot near the river and the vines
were all frozen as were the basil tomatoes peppers
and squash
luckily we had picked everything anticipating the freeze

these beans are large like the big butter beans we use to eat
when i was a kid

these are different because of the purple striations throughout
the bean and are different
because the flavor is so good

i have cooked them just in enough water to cover them good
until they were tender
no seasoning no salt no pepper no salt meat no bacon no pig feet
just plain ole beans

they taste like they are well seasoned and were cooked in ham

yes they are worth the gamble every year to see if they will beat
that first freeze

my contribution to the early christmas season celebration
move over black friday

the organicgreen doctor

frozed, post interview, bluebonnets

FROZED
every fall i battle the temperature as it starts to fall
trying to inch out a few more days of growth so that my
tomatoes, christmas limas, peppers, basil, egg plant and
malabar spinach can provide a a slightly better harvest

we live here in the country n in a bowl where the land
slopes as it goes down to the river
because of this the night time temps can dip down several
degrees more than nearby communities

should learn my lesson watching the news and seeing the
predicted temperatures as we also always get slightly
colder than they do

this year saw the temp was going to go down so went
out and covered my maters, peppers etc with good thick
row cover that gives 7 degrees of protection

was afraid to look for several days but when i peeked under
that row cover
i was real disappointed because all of my nice green tomatoes
were mushy and light green
should have picked them and wrapped them up in newspapers
like i did last year (had maters past christmas last year)
wont happen this year
chickens loved the frozed maters though

my christmas lima beans  i was so proud of them were growing
great and had a lot of maturing pods on them
they look so sad now
wilty light green drooping bean vines
no limas this year

next year im determined to grow those damn limas i nurtured since
april and used a lot of precious rainwater on them this summer
to keep them going
disappointed but more determined as ever to grow those thangs

(did give some seeds to my rainwater brother he  maybe hell grow
some next year in his slightly warmer climate and share with me)

glad im not farming for a living

do have cole crops, asian greens, arugula, swiss chard, lettuce,
spinach, turnips, carrots, beets (for my wife she not me) and
garlic in my winter garden

all is not lost

POST INTERVIEW
have been interviewed twice about azheimers
the 2nd was yesterday and will be interviewed again on
thursday in dallas

am impressed at how good these reporters are in the jobs
they do
in both of the interviews which lasted about 2 hours each
the reporters were able to understand and get the essence of
what i feel, my family feels, my patients feel, my fellow employees feel
by asking the right questions and picking up sometimes on a single
word then developing more about it

am impressed
we dont give these talented reporters enough credit
these are real reporters not just someone who spits out
what others have written
we need more of them in the news industry not less of them

am pleased with yesterdays interview as the essence was caught
it should be published in sundays austin-american statesman
here is their website www.statesman.com

BLUEBONNETS
this year was an awful blue bonnet season here
was the worst since we have lived at the country n
the drought took its tool as we got little rain last winter
i was disappointed as i had put out a lot of new bluebonnet
seeds last fall

guess they saved themselves for this coming year
we got 4 inches of rain here last month and the bluebonnets
have responded like i have not seen here before

they are so thick in my pastures that i hate to even walk
anywhere because they get crushed
individual plants were so rare last year i tried to protect
everyone of them that came up

if we get enough rain this winter we should have a bumper crop

cant wait
know lady bird would be happy

the organicgreen doctor

hog huntin, texas rain gauge, vines

HOG HUNTIN
am not talking about what the rolling tide did this last weekend
and what the aggies want to do this weekend

(hog fans remember there are 8 big 12 schools pulling for the hogs
to win this weekend against the aggies
one school and their fans in particular want it bad
show them what they will be up against next year)

in the north especially in the new york areas they are developing
a wild hog problem
welcome to what the south has been dealing with for years
texas has over 2 million wild hogs that are pretty much uncontrolled
my guess is the hog count is not accurate but is much greater
they sure do a lot of destruction in the million of dollars especially
to the agriculture industry

if they dont do something they will be where we are in a few years
thats because those hogs drop those babies more than rabbits do
> 12 per year per momma

in new york game ranches have bought in the russian hogs to use
for hog hunts
they did not let any escape they said and are not the source of
those wild hogs
interestingly all the largest numbers surround the big game ranches
a+b=c
seems simple to me

new legislation restricting their imports has been delayed for 4 years
lets see 1x6 females x 6 females x 6 females x6 females = 1296 females
if 50% of litters are females and each produces 6 females
then multiply x 4 years = greater than 5000 females from one female
know theres a formula to figure that out but i quit doing those after
i finished taking calculus in college years ago

think maybe they need to do something quicker dont you think
maybe export some of those red neck hog hunters from that
cable hog hunting show
theyll get er done for sure
then they could do a new series called yankee hog hunt

just sayin

TEXAS RAIN GAuGE
i have a large rain gage that is 3 feet high that measures up to
5 inches of rain so i can see it from a distance whenever it
rains
it is out in the open so i could get a more accurate rain
measurement of the rain

however the rain we have had is so scarce it disappears before
it gets to the bottom of the rain gauge
so i got this one
it was free off the twist top of a bud light beer
so now it can accurately measure our rain

VINES
several weeks ago i posted a blog with pictures of two
plantings in my yard
one was the monkey pod vine
well the drought has taken its toll
i had to selectively decide to water plants this summer
and the monkey pod vine became my low priority

all did not make it except for one scrawny plant thats
next to one of my struggling tomatoes
i cant make myself take a picture of it since it looks
so bad
hopefully it will produce a monkey pod for planting next year

the other vine i planted was a christmas lima bean which is
growing great
its about 10 feet high and nice and green
hopefully i can get some nice big beans off it in time for
thanksgiving
will try to post pictures if i do

the organicgreen doctor

planking, monkey pod vine, christmas limas, garden stuff

PLANKING
ok so my niece started planking on facebook
so i started reading about planking
so i thought i could do that planking stuff

maybe ill do organicgreen planking
so here it is

rainwater harvesting water tank planking by
the organicgreen doctor

MONKEY POD VINE

the monkey pod vine is growing
see my previous blog about the monkey pod vine
it now is reaching the top of our
arbor which is about 8 ft high
more later


CHRISTMAS LIMAS

the christmas limas that i blogged about recently is growing
its now at about 8 ft
its a long way until christmas
wonder if it will outgrow the monkey pod vine

hope it produces a lot of beans
more later

that black stuff in the picture is a sun screen that
ive put over my tomatoes and peppers to give them
some shade from our oppressive 100+ heat

GARDEN STUFF
dont put your seeds in the freezer
put them in the refrigerator instead

be mulching your garden
i have a 4 inch layer of mulch on my garden
i use a dripper under the mulch
this way my garden doesnt lose as much moisture in
all this heat

when i recently harvested my onions i overseeded the bed with
black eyed peas
they provide nitrogen back in the soil and provides peas for us
to eat and will turn the vines back into the soil this fall

the organicgreen doctor

garden porn, monkey pod vines, christmas limas, bb

GARDEN PORN

so my wife she has a friend who
is very witty
she reads my blog a lot and
enjoys seeing pictures of my
garden

she called those pictures
garden porn

MONKEY POD VINES
so my medical school friend has a friend that has these vines
that grows along an arbor around his house in the summer
it takes over the arbor and looks so luscious

so we were talking and he said hey ive got a bunch of those
monkey pods you can have so you can plant them on your
arbor

here are those monkey pods

its the thing in the white cup that looks
an organism that you would see under
a microscope or something you might
see falling from the sky from outer space







here it is after its been planted for a few days

its the small string line vine in the middle of the picture
it sure grew out of that pod fast
then up that string
hope its not like one of those old horror movies from the
the 50s-the pods

will show pictures as it progresses this summer
hope it doesnt reach out and grab our cat

am a little concern since i cant find anything on google
about it
that means its not real and doesnt exist

CHRISTMAS LIMAS
so i read this article in a local paper about these christmas
lima beans that grow all summer and produce beans in the
fall
so i ordered some
here they are

they are the size of my thumbnail
sure are pretty
so i planted them and they look like this

whoa they sure grew fast
they might outgrow the monkey not on google pod vines

supposedly they grow all summer and love the heat and grow
to about 10 feet long
then in the late fall you can harvest the beans and eat them
apparently they have a meaty taste and have a lot of
nutrition in them

hope they dont take over the garden like the monkey pod
vines seems to want to do

will post the progress of these vines as the summer progresses
hope we dont have another kudzu on our hands

BB
lebron will have a great game tonight since
that reporter ticked him off after the game
am sure dallas will wish that reporter would have kept
his mouth shut

the organicgreen doctor