Brown Thumb Gardener – Baby Purple Podded Pole Beans

When I got home from work, it was almost midnight on Sunday. Monday evening, I went out to say “hi” to my garden, and my purple podded pole beans looked beautiful! They finally had some little buds on them.

Last night, while watering the garden, I looked at my beans again. Imagine my surprise and excitement when I saw this:

Little baby purple podded pole beans! Yay!

I had no idea these little beans would grow so fast. It’s truly amazing. 

Something tells me that July will see lots of bean canning on my schedule. Good thing I just ordered more pint sized canning jars!

Other than the pole beans, the garden is doing just about the same. The carrots are looking fabulous, the potatos seem to be doing well, and the basil is bushing up more by the day.

I did lose one basil plant that just didn’t seem to transplant well. That’s okay; I still have 16 more in my garden!

The swiss chard and collard greens are obviously trying to make a comeback, but the critter keeps nibbling away at them. I need to decide if I’m going to get an electric fence to try and save them, or just write them off for the year.

Honestly, I don’t know which way I’m going to go. At this point, I doubt I’ll be able to grow enough to stockpile a years supply for Zac, so I may just call it a loss and move on…carrying the lesson into next summers growing season, of course!

There was one interesting thing I ran across recently: a new magazine in our area called “Edible Ozarkansas“.

It’s quite a lovely little magazine, with some useful and amusing information.

The thing that caught my eye, though, was a nice spread they did on “A sampling of what typically can be found available fresh in the Ozarkansas region during July, August and September”. 

Of course, my antennae immediately perked up; this could be a handy guide to things that grow well in my area for next summers garden!

I had to laugh when I read it, though. Here, I’ll list off everything they shared was typical for my area, and next to it the reason why we can’t eat it:

I didn’t even share any potential histamine problems on this…only the things that popped out off the top of my head!

Out of 26 possible foods that I can easily find in my area, only 8 have any potential as a trial food for Zac. 3 of those 8 I don’t know enough about, so I may discover they are a potential problem via FPIES, fructose, or histamine!

So really, only 5 potential foods for Zac at this point in time off that list.

I’m amazed at how something so basic and fundamental as eating can be such an obstacle when a body doesn’t function in a typical fashion. 

Well, on the bright side, I guess that still helps me winnow down my gardening options for next summer. Right?   (I have to find a silver lining in this somehow!)

How is your garden doing so far? I really would love to hear any gardening stories – especially from folks who haven’t grown much before!

__________

***It was brought to my attention that zucchini actually has a high success rate for FPIES kids. All I can say is that either I remembered information incorrectly, remembered it correctly and it was outdated information, or I just lumped zucchini and summer squash together in my head when I first wrote this. Just goes to show – no matter how far down the path of FPIES you go, there’s always something to learn! Thanks, Jamie!