Beans

After months of anticipation, we finally have beans coming out of Jove's Garden. They are an heirloom variety called Good Mother Stallard that we ordered from the Seed Savers Exchange ($2.50 for 50 seeds). They are beautiful and I let you all know how they taste.

Jove got to decide what we would plant in his garden and since he is a little picky about what he eats we ended up with mostly carrots (AKA the only veggie Jove eats everyday), beans and basil, to make pesto. We also had some cilantro early on and some other "experiments" like garbanzos and some snap peas that were soon to be completely shaded out by what Jove calls the beanstalk after the starring plant in the Jack and the Beanstalk story.

Now the seed package said the plants would have a pole habit, meaning they would grow as a climbing vine. I assumed this meant the plant would get maybe 6-7 feet tall, but oh no. We used some leftover 10 ft PVC pipes to support it and the stem was still looking to climb higher. Jove told me today we should save some of the seeds to plant next year and I asked him what we are going to use to hold up the vines. I think I may have to splurge on some real bean poles and I have decided to try to make a bean tunnel that Jove can hang out in.

Jove is beside himself with excitement about his beans and wanted to count them today. We counted 52 this morning and we have since picked and shelled at least 5 times that many. The beans fit neatly on the grid of Jove's hundred number chart and we did some counting by fives and tens. At the end of it all, Jove says to me, "I think we are doing math." Yep, we are, the bean counters. Where did the expression "bean counters" come from anyway?