The Food Gardener

Tepary Beans - Phaseolus acutifolius

I didn’t know what to expect when I planted those tepary beans. It was a new crop for my garden and an adventure in dry land gardening. I had selected the San Felipe Pueblo White Tepary Beans to grow out for the Garden Network Project with Native Seed SEARCH where in exchange for free seed I would keep growth records and take documentation photographs of the beans.

I assumed they would have a bushy type growth pattern and had read enough to know to wait for a good summer rain before planting. Germination was quick and about 80 percent. Growth was rapid for beans and it soon was evident that I had climbing or sprawling bean plants. Turns out they climbed readily up the tree branches I stuck there for them and eventually reached the nearby bird netting with some climbing over 9 feet up.

The mass of bean plant growth seems ignored by insects and diseases and shows no response to drought conditions. It has been a wet monsoon season here in southern New Mexico and so far I have not watered the bed of Tepary Beans. They blossomed abundantly, set fruit right through the hottest days and are now showing dry pods ready to harvest. When I have enough for Tepary Bean Soup I’ll share the flavor and recipe in another post.

Useful Links:
Source for Seed (Native Seed SEARCH)
University of Florida Extension Bulletin
Cooking and Recipes (Heritage Foods USA)

till next time,

Darrol Shillingburg - The Food Gardener
Las Cruces, NM

Posted by at 10:36 PM | Permalink

Can Americans Eat Locally?

190 restaurants in 26 states challenged to use only ingredients from within a 150-mile radius
Palo Alto, Calif. (September 28, 2005) - Yahoo! Corporation Executive Chef Robert Hart had a dilemma - a few thousand hungry diners, and the threat of no sandwich bread.

"I was stuck without a local source for yeast. So I found local apple cider, fermented it, and made my own sourdough starter," said Hart. "This is not just an esoteric exercise - I want to make a terrific meal with what's available right here in our backyard."

Hart is one of 190 chefs participating in the September 29th "Eat Local Challenge." Palo Alto-based Bon Appétit Management Company, the national food service provider which runs all of the restaurants, launched the challenge to raise awareness about where the food on our plates comes from.

On Eat Local Challenge day 150,000 diners at corporate, university, and museum restaurants from Seattle to Washington D.C. can choose to eat a 100 percent locally grown meal, made entirely of ingredients from within 150 miles of the kitchen where they are served.

Check out the press release here and their professional video clips on food miles and local foods. This should continue to increase our awareness of and attention to our food systems.

Darrol

Posted by at 2:40 PM | Permalink

It’s the powdery mildew season again here in southern New Mexico. It surfaces with the increased humidity of the monsoon season combined with the cooler nights of August and September. And the Hopi Pumpkin is where it shows first and worst (A).

Last year I let nature take its course and the squash produced until frost, but it undoubtedly produced less that it would have without the mildew. This year I decided to “take charge” and reduce or at least control the mildew. The first application of milk diluted 10-1 seemed to have little effect, so I added baking soda (at the recommended concentration) to the second application and it seemed to be more effective. Until I noticed that the forming fruits had stopped growing and were beginning to shrivel. (B) A couple days later I could see that the young fruits were going to die on the vine. (C)

Leave it to nature – the plants are recovering, in spite of the mildew, blooming and producing new fruits. Those plants that I didn’t treat (what a treat!) are producing fruit as expected and will probably keep on growing more vines and more fruit right up to first frost.

Here are links to publications on Powdery and Downey Mildew control:

Use of Baking Soda as a Fungicide
Downy Mildew Control in Cucurbits
Powdery Mildew on Vegetables – IPM – UC Davis

till next time - garden well

Darrol

Posted by at 10:58 AM | Permalink