The Food Gardener

The Food Gardener - Las Cruces, NM

Multiple Transitions Between Seasons

The garden never sleeps as life continues through transitions from warm to cold season plants, from nitrogen users to fixers, from hot active soils to cool slow soils. And always without a shoveling, without stirring the complex colony, without destroying the ecological harmony – nothing violent, nothing rapid, nothing chemical, nothing mechanical, just the rhythmic transitions that maintain natural order. The slow in-ground decay of roots mulched in place by organisms returning what’s unused to the soil to be used by organisms to produce more food.

So it must be that the ecological garden never dries, never lies fallow, never starves in the quest for a balanced system in which I marvel and feed.

till next time,

Darrol – The Food Gardener
www.darrolshillingburg.com

Posted by at 9:18 PM | Permalink

The Food Gardener - Las Cruces New Mexico

The Promises of Summer

In the heat of summers’ air with cool rich soil below,
Life fulfills its promise of generations yet to be.
It leaves a seed with potential and direction,
That feeds all earths creatures, even me.

till next time,

Darrol

Minnie's Apache Hubbard Squash
Chapolte Maiz

Posted by at 10:39 PM | Permalink

The Food Gardener - Las Cruces, NM

Sellers Markets' Sustainable Fast Food

A local start at putting good-for-you-food in the mainstream of our way of living and praising the artisanship of local food makers at the same time. More evidence that local food is not only in demand but is also is a good business model.

Thanks to Treehugger.com and Sellers Market

Darrol
The Food Gardener
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Posted by at 8:33 AM | Permalink

Christmas Limas - Phaseolus lunatis

Christmas Limas were brought into the U.S. around 1840 and have been grown in home gardens since then. They are decedents for their large seeded ancestors domesticated in South America at least 9,000 years ago.

They are a vigorous bean that easily climbs to 10ft and produces continuously until frost. In Las Cruces they seem little effected by the hot dry June weather or bean diseases. They cook quickly and have a rich nutty flavor and can be eaten either as a mature or green seed.

Source of seed – Baker Creek Heirloom Seed
Information on – Bean Domestication and History
Information on - Characteristics and Requirements
Wikipedia link - Lima Beans

till next time,

Darrol Shillingburg
www.darrolshillingburg.com

Posted by at 9:05 PM | Permalink

Dixie Speckled Butter Peas - Phaseolus lunatis

The Butter Pea is one of many sieva types or small seeded lima beans that are descendents from domestication of the wild ancestors of Mesoamerica – central Mexico to Costa Rica and into northern South America. The earliest archaeological evidence is from Mexico dating to at the latest 800 AD. So how can you call a bean that old, young? Relative to other bean domestications that predate maize these little guys are rather new arrivals.

The Dixie Speckled Butter Pea is one that I grow every year, since I love the flavor and growing them is the only way to get them. Besides they may be the most prolific bean in the whole garden – and a small bush form at that! You can plant them as soon as soil temperatures reach 65 F and all chance of frost is past and they will produce beans almost continuously until killed by frost. Last year they were still blooming when nipped by the first frost and kept producing beans on the lower parts of the plant. In Las Cruces you will get some blossom drop in the dry heat of June, but the rest of the season they seem immune to everything, if you keep them evenly watered.

If you think you don’t like lima beans, give these little guys a try. You might be surprised by their rich yet mild flavor.

Source of seed - Baker Creek Heirloom Seed
Information on - Bean Domestication and History
Information on - Characteristics and Requirements
Wikipedia link - Lima Beans

till next time,

Darrol Shillingburg
www.darrolshillingburg.com

Posted by at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Another Old New Mexico Bean

Another old bean grown in New Mexico is the bolita. Some claim them to be the first bean grown in the region by the Spanish and later replaced by pinto beans, which have a higher yield/acre. However, they are stil grown in irrigated plots by Hispanic farmers in the northern parts of the state and by Schwebach Farms in Moriarty, NM.

I know very little about them other than they are mild and creamy in flavor as well as a robust and easy pole bean in the garden. Don’t plan on using them for green beans as they have a lightly stiff furry surface texture on the pod as well as the leaves and they are stringy. In fact the leaves tend to stick to your clothing. This is my first, but not last year for growing them.

You can order the beans from Adobe Mills in 10lb sacks and the seeds for planting from Native Seed SEARCH.
You can also purchase Bolita Beans directly from Schwebach Farms in Moriarty.

till next time,

Darrol Shillingburg
www.darrolshillingburg.com

Posted by at 12:14 PM | Permalink

An old bean from the Ancient Ones

Anasazi beans are one of our favorites, especially when cooked with black turtle beans, plenty of garlic and English Thyme for that special flavor. No matter how many I plant in the garden we always have to purchase more from our local coop. Although first brought to market around 1983 they can still be a hard to find item.

The earliest growers were the Anasazi (Ancient Ones) Peoples of the Southwest with carbon dating proving the bean to have been in cultivation for at least 1500 years (and probably much longer). It’s safe to say that they are well adapted to the southwest.

They are very easy to grow in my sandy soil, are quite drought tolerant, disease free and productive. I space the plantings out throughout the growing season for a continuous supply of green beans as well as a staggered harvest of dry beans. Be sure to save plenty of seed for next years crop - you will want them again!

If you would like to try them without growing your own, purchase them from the Adobe Milling Company in Durango CO.

till next time,

Darrol Shillingburg
www.darrolshillingburg.com

Posted by at 9:47 PM | Permalink