Basil and Beans

 
     We've been really busy with our annual vegetable planting, and working on the landscaping in the front yard.  We've finished planting our main warm season crops with basil and beans.

     We dedicated almost half of the compass bed to our basil plantings.  We regularly enjoy it fresh in salads and with tomatoes during the summer, but it's pesto making that requires so much basil.  Usually we try and make enough for 16 or so jars that we'll freeze for making pesto pasta and pizza's during the winter.

     For beans we've planted 4 different variates of this year all from Seed Savers Exchange.  

     The one in the photo is Calypso or "Yin Yang".  It is a great productive dry bean for baking and soups and looks really cool to boot!  The second variety we planted is Dragon's Tongue that has cream colored pods with thin purple stripes.  The pods are stringless, crisp and juicy.  The third type is Cherokee Trail of Tears, a bean whose seed was saved by Cherokee indians.  The beans are purple striped and great for eating fresh or drying.  The last type of bean we planted was Fin De Bagnol an old gourmet european variety of french string bean.

     We've also planted another round of radishes, beets, carrots, and onion sets for spring onions.  The garden is looking really beautiful and we look forward to sharing photos of it with you in the upcoming posts!