We planted three kinds of beans this year, Molly Frazier White Cutshort Pole Beans, Dragon Tongue Bush Beans, and Scarlet Runner Beans.  We planted our beans about 1″ deep and 3″ apart for the runner and pole beans, and 4″ apart for the bush beans.  They all sprouted in a week or two with no problems, but we had trouble keeping the Molly Frazier alive, we had watering problems with our drip system and the ones that were getting watered right still did not flourish.  Once the Scarlet Runner and Molly Frazier pole beans sprouted we put several tall garden stakes in the ground with strings running between them.  Then tied a string from the plant to the string above for the beans to run up.

The Dragon Tongue Bush Beans have been doing well and made quite a few beans, but the Scarlet Runner Beans are what we’ve had the most luck with. They can be used as a green beans or if you don’t harvest right away you can leave them on the vine for dried beans. The Scarlet Runner bean flowers are red and very very pretty, apparently some people grow them just as a pretty flowering vine.  I’ve also read that bees love Scarlet Runner Beans bright red flowers and we have noticed a lot of bees and butterflies around ours.

We finally had enough Scarlet Runner Beans to cook a couple of nights ago, I just sauteed them with olive oil and some shallots and they were very good, tender with a mild flavor. We tried some of the Dragon Tongue Bush beans this way as well but didn’t like their flavor quite as much and they didn’t get as tender, so I think we are going to try to save those pods and use them as dried beans. Apparently the Scarlet Runner Beans are a very popular variety in England and from what I’ve read you can buy the green beans in the grocery store fresh or even frozen there.  I’ve also read that they like cooler summers better than warm summers which could explain why we are having such good luck with ours because we have had a really mild summer here in Colorado.  I think next year we will try a different variety of runner or poles beans along with the Scarlet Runners again.

St. Valery Carrot (orange) and Amarillo Carrot (yellow)

We harvested our first four carrots a couple of nights ago.  We weren’t sure if they were ready or not so I pulled up a couple and was pleasantly surprised, they were definitely big enough to eat and looked very pretty.  We planted two varieties this year, Amarillo carrots which are a light yellow color and St. Valery carrots which look like a standard carrot but so far have been a little wider than the Amarillo carrots.

We planted carrots here around May 20, 3 rows to our 30 inch bed, after they sprouted I thinned them out - about 1 carrot every 2 inches, and we had great success with them germinating although I missed quite a few when I was thinning them out, which caused some of our carrots to be too small to use. They have flourished this summer, and we should have plenty of carrots to use as we have been getting some from our CSA as well.

We cut one of each up and ate them raw, and they were both sweet and juicy, Jeremy thought the Amarillo carrots were a little bit sweeter than the St. Valery carrots but I didn’t think I could tell a difference between the two.  I put him to a blind taste test and he couldn’t tell either.  Both varieties taste so much better than the carrots you get from the supermarket and carrots have now become Jacob’s favorite vegetable along with roasted beets.  I think we are going to cut some up and freeze them to use in stir fries, etc. during the winter.