{"id":14613,"date":"2016-10-11T13:46:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T12:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greensideup.ie\/?p=14613"},"modified":"2016-10-31T11:39:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T11:39:06","slug":"dried-beans-and-smallholder-gatherings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/dried-beans-and-smallholder-gatherings\/","title":{"rendered":"Dried Beans and a Smallholder Gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"
I often hear the phrases “I don’t have green fingers” or “I haven’t got a clue about gardening” and I would have said the same myself in the past. We can apply that to all areas in our lives where we haven’t learnt some basics – “I can’t type” or “I can’t bake”. In the end it comes down to education, learning and practice and when we begin to open ourselves up to new experiences, our confidence grows and usually there’s no looking back.<\/p>\n
In the gardening world we never stop learning. It doesn’t matter whether we’ve a PhD or a participation certificate, there’s so much to excite inquiring minds; nature isn’t something we can pin down and understand every nuance of, we’re always discovering new mysteries.<\/p>\n
This week\u00a0I grabbed a day out of the busy work\/family schedule to clear out the polytunnel and found myself ridiculously excited to find so many dried beans hanging from the climbing plants that had gone beyond their best. One of the reasons pea and bean plants in the legume family<\/a> stop producing is because we stop picking them; they think their job is done and they start to produce viable seeds instead of luscious green pods ripe for eating.<\/p>\n Saving the seeds of vegetables I’ve grown isn’t a habit I’ve developed but as I make the transition from chemical free to organic gardening, it’s opened up so many possibilities.<\/p>\n During the spring I joined Irish Seedsavers<\/a> who sell organic, heritage varieties of seeds suitable for the Irish climate, one variety of which were Mr Fern Climbing Bean<\/a>. The beans were a delicious and prolific crop, giving us\u00a0many summer dinners and several bag full of beans in the freezer for the cooler months. We didn’t pick them all and consequently, the seeds began to dry naturally in the protected environment of the polytunnel. \u00a0I’ve been able to save enough for my seed tin for a couple of years and will give some to community gardening friends too. I might even soak and boil a few to add to a supper dish during the winter.<\/p>\nChemical Free to Organic Gardening<\/h4>\n