Bush Bean Redland Pioneer Life Cycle

The first bush bean that we grown was 'Redland Pioneer' in our garden and has been the best performer among the bush beans we have tried (not many though still to compare with). But it has been the most reliable bean to fill in the hungry gap. Bush bean grows really fast and provide some beans in 7~8weeks of growing, sometime earlier if the weather is preferable for their optimum growth. It is really an important veggie in our garden since it fill the hungry gap in spring and again in fall. We sow 'Redland Pioneer' bush bean 3 times a year-spring, summer and autumn. Well, rather than leaving the soil bare after harvesting other veggies, we might as well grow beans so they help fix nitrogen into the soil again. Its a win-win situation. I feel that bush bean seeds does not require much water to germinate, too much water can cause the seeds to rot easily in cool season. A really good veggie for a lazy gardener like me, bush beans not a heavy drinker and not a heavy feeder.

Bush bean 'Redland Pioneer' seedlings'

Because we don't have that much space to grow and very greedy, I tried to maximize the space we have by planting the plants densely together in spring/summer. I can get away growing them densely in a spot with full sun because they don't compete each other with light and it helps keep the soil moist longer as it is covered with the foliage. Less evaporation. Save money from buying mulch. I gave up with mulching this year because the bird will cause serious damage by their scratching habit on seedlings. Last spring when we transplanted tomato at this area, we direct-sowed bush bean seeds around the tomato seedlings. It did very well and the tomatoes grow without any fuss. Humidity is very low in our garden warm season here so our tomato plants can readily accept being close to other plants and I don't have to worry about good air circulation.

Beans grow well in partial shade too. But not as prolific as in full sun which you get more beans to harvest. In partial shade, I probably plant shorter plants together with beans to give the bean plants more light and not to over-shadowed them. We had many violas flower plant volunteers one spring season, and I transplanted them as border plant just to make the garden look more colourful. If in tropics, I can imagine portulaca (moss rose) growing in the viola place instead. At the back row are Bloomsdale spinach young plants.

Bush Bean Redland Pioneer very prolific.

At their pick season, just a few plants will give you enough harvest for an average family number.

I have been growing them for 3 years but this is the first time/year I really collected their seeds. I have been trying to collect them earlier last year but its hard to get the seed pod dried properly in autumn season.  I also found sprouted bean seeds in the seed pods during autumn. So this time I let the summer heat wave do the quick drying process for me.

Shining harvested bean seeds.

After I harvested the seeds, I planted some of our home-grown seeds. I felt very satisfied with the results and the new harvest from plants grown from our home-grown seeds. Contentment.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mid-Autumn pickings

This month harvest is all rather quick process of picking what I needed while cooking so did not taken many photos of our harvest this month. This month available harvest in our kebun (garden) are mainly consist of...

Some of our banana capsicum is ripening at the moment. Banana capsicum is not a hot but sweet variety type so Rayyan can enjoy it as well. He won't eat spicy food yet. Brought in our last batch of home-grown onion that were hanging out at the shed. Cut some Chinese celery stalk. It was growing under the canopy of our tree dahlia plants that I almost forget I have them in the garden. It does not received much direct sunlight at the moment. Harvested our first 'bari' cucumber. Its actually a melon and very mini size type. I did not realised that it is actually a 'heirloom' cucumber that is not available in catalogues. I got it from our local seed-saver group. 

With the warm mild weather, the garden is producing eggplants, cucumbers and okras. I tried to grow several variety of beans in the shade during summer as they still get indirect light. We did get some produce though not as prolific as the ones that are growing in sunny position during spring/autumn. In the basket, bean harvest from shade position.

Pull out some of our summer growing parsnips to see how they are growing under the soil, glad that they are roots to enjoy. But I will leave some for winter harvest. 'Cherokee Wax' and 'Redland Pioneer' bush bean has been the main bean that we harvested this month. I am excited with the 'Redland Pioneer' harvest because it was my first time growing home saved-seeds of this bean. The bush bean 'Redland Pioneer' produces the first batch of bean to harvest the same as the fast growth of Pak chois for fast crop. Everyweek we have some kangkung to harvest.

What amazed me is how tolerant the savoy cabbage and Italian sprouting broccoli withstand our extreme summer weather. I have one neglected happy Italian sprouting broccoli plant and still producing shoots for us at the back of our backyard fence. It only gets water 3-4 times a week during the warm season. It is already a year old.

We caught many bream fish but there are still small (mostly almost 20cm) not legal size. So have to be released back into the water. The only legal size catch that we had is whiting.

See harvest all around the world at Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday.

Green Beans with Sesame Sauce

We harvested all over-wintered parsnip and carrots grown in container last week. Those carrot root centre/core are about to be woody so it was better to harvested all of them. We also harvested some broccoli. Yellow currant cherry tomatoes plants from last year starts to be so generous with producing many tomatoes now. I was very amazed to observe that the number of fruits dangling on the plant at the moment surpassed last year peak season of this plant. On top of that the fruit size were bigger as well. Beans were becoming a constant thing on the kitchen table.

A very fast healthy dish to prepare with beans last weekend was a basic classic Japanese home-cooking dish which is green beans with sesame sauce. I got this recipe from chef Yoshihiro Murata's Japanese Home Cooking with Master Chef Murata cooking book. It took less than 15 minutes to prepare this dish.

Green Beans with Sesame Sauce

Ingredients:

170g young green beans cut into ~4cm (cook in boiling water with a pinch of salt until tender but still crisp, shock in cold water and drain)

Sesame dressing:

1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp soy sauce (because I prefer strong taste or 'koi aji' I used 3 tsp soy sauce)

1 tsp sugar

Chop the sesame seeds with a knife (I did not chopped the sesame seeds) and combine with soy sauce and sugar in a medium bowl to make sesame sauce. Dress the green beans with the sauce.

The first harvest of Lebanese eggplant for this spring from our 2 years old plant. Asian leaf green like red choi were also harvested and it ain't look pretty. The poppy flower stalk can even go through the holes on the leaves.

This spring I have not started to sow any leaf amaranth seeds. However, we have many volunteers growing in different containers that we even got a bunch of leaf amarant harvest last week. Last weekend we harvested one of the last cauliflowers for this year for us.

Visit Daphne's Dandelion for Harvest Monday.

Malaysia fast side-dish

Our first batch of Mid/Late-August sowed Redland Pioneer bush bean started to produce many beans to pick last week and we shared some with our neighbour. Some Pak choi, sprouting broccoli and leek were also harvested last week.

We made a quick dish of Stir-fry beef and bean with black been sauce. I am not that much a fan of beans but I have to admit I enjoyed it because those bean tasted sweet. Moreover, unexpectedly my boys like to eat home-grown and home-cooked bean. 

Crushed 2 cloves garlic and and inch of ginger. Heat a little oil in the wok for frying about 300gram of slice beef. Fry the beef first till tender. Lift it up. Then saute garlic and ginger. Add in beef, bean or some carrot or leek and mix well with about 5 tablespoon of black bean sauce in the wok till those bean cooked. For seasoning, I add a spoon of sugar. A fast food to prepare on a busy day to enjoy together with a bowl of steamed rice.

Harvested some few remaining over-wintered carrots and beetroots.

My cousin Lenay surprised me by using beetroot in one of Malaysia traditional dish popular in Negeri Sembilan state where my father grew up. It is a very easy to make and well-loved dish that I think mama will at least cook it once a week for the family. The dish is known as "Berlada" basically means any spicy fried food coated with chilli paste. You can used fresh or dried chili and blended it well into paste for the basic ingredient. Usually fried anchovies will be mixed together with fried fermented soy bean (tempe) or potato or nuts with chili paste. This is Lenay version of ikan bilis, ubi kentang dan beetroot masak berlada ( Spicy anchovies, potato and beetroot).

Prepare chilli paste ( I usually keep a container of chilli paste from dried chilli in fridge that last me for 2 weeks, or pound 5~7 big chillies well this will depend on the chilli variety hotness you are going to use).

Cut 1 beetroot and 1 big potato size into wedges and fried them separately until a little crispy. A half bowl of fried anchovies.

Heat some oil into the wok, not too much oil or it will be oily. It will be very much depended on how many spoon of chilli paste you want to use. Maybe oil and chili paste ratio should be 1:1. To be on the safer side the amount of oil should be a little bit less than the the chilli. Add in chilli paste (about 3 tablespoon), cook and stir until the oil starts to come out at the side or fragrant. You know it will be ready if you start to sneeze. Then add in fried anchovies, beetroot and potatoes. Stir to coat them with chilli paste evenly. Enjoy with steamed rice. I found another way to cook beetroot that I like thanks to Lenay. 

Sharon author of Test with Skewer blog that always inspired me also made her nice version of this traditional side dish recently with more helpful detail and explanation.

I cleared a pot of polystyrene container that were growing excess seedlings of brown onions because it look more like spring onions now. I doubt it will produce decent bulb. We also harvested a cauliflower. Just had it for dinner and it was so crisp and sweet.

What to do with those look-alike spring onions.

Well mostly for garnishing.

We used those spring onions to garnish sesame honeyed-fried prawn.

Visit Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.