19 inches

A few weeks back I posted about how I am growing Chinese Yardlong beans.  Many of you were curious about these beans and asked what they tasted like and how to cook them.  I grew up eating these so it's very familiar to me, but I failed to realize that it's not a vegetable commonly seen in American grocery stores.  They are usually sold in Asian markets.  They are also called Asparagus beans, but I'm not sure why they call it that.  Maybe because they are long and slender like an Asparagus?  How I would describe this bean is that it is just like a very long green bean / string bean / pole bean.  It's just very long.

Cook them how you would cook your string beans, what I like to do is cut them into thirds and sauté them with some olive oil and salt / pepper.  Actually... that's how I like to eat most of my veggies.  Hahaha.  My dad however, he likes it stir fried with black bean sauce and garlic.  It's delicious like that too.

Just to give you an idea of how long these beans can get, check it out next to my measuring tape.

If you can't see the number, here's a closeup.  Yup, that says 19 inches!  ;)
In my opinion, growing these are better than growing regular green beans because harvesting one bean is like harvesting three regular sized green beans.  Less to harvest and more food = heaven!!

My first Zuke and Chinese Yard Long Beans!

Erin, over at Garden Now-Think Later, grew Chinese Yard Long Beans last year and she raved about them. She loved how easy these were to grow, and how easy they were to find to harvest them.  I grew pole beans last year, and indeed, it is hard to find those suckers behind all those leaves.  These Yard Long beans however are so long, it's easy to see them to harvest.  I grew up eating these beans, so I was so excited to try to grow them this year.  My dad gave me seeds, and my cousin gave me seedlings.  This plant will definitely be a keeper in my garden.  I'm so in love with them!

I had also planted 5 zucchini plants, and many of you told me I would be overflowing with lots of zucchini. For some reason, none of the plants are producing any female flowers, and those that do, seem to not produce a fruit that is pollinated so they turn yellow and die off. At long last, I harvested my first zucchini. I'm pretty disappointed because I was hoping to have lots of fruit by now.  I had hopes of freezing some for future zucchini breads.  Next year, I think I will forgo growing broccoli and devote that bed to zucchini instead.  This is my second year growing broccoli and I hate it.  It's just not worth my time since they get ravished by bugs.  I want to be overwhelmed with zucchini, to the point where I have more than I can handle.  It's not meant to be I guess.  I'll be lucky if the plants grow another zucchini for me to harvest.  Let's hope it does.

With the harvested zucchini, I decided to make my version of pasta primavera.  All of the vegetables are from the garden except for the sun dried tomatoes.  I added homegrown snap peas, radish greens, the zuke, and garlic.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and parmasean cheese.  Serve warm, yum, it is quite delicious and fresh tasting. 

For more dishes featuring the Garden to Table, check out Greenish Thumb!

Plants from my Cousin

When I saw my Cousin Bo at her nephew's birthday party last month, she surprised me with seedlings that she started from seed to plant in my garden.  She gave me Chinese Yard Long Bean seedlings in a milk carton.  I love that my family re-uses food containers for pots just like I do!   These beans are slender and long, usually growing about a foot and 1/2 long.  Being of Chinese descent, I grew up eating these beans, they are delicious stir fried with black bean sauce.  YUM.  If you are wondering what these beans look like, there is a lovely photo of these bean plants on the header of  Erin's blog at Garden Now, Think Later.  Reading her blog, I know that she loves these beans as much as I do.  Unfortunately, shortly after planting these beans, we were hit with hot, hot weather following but rain and more rain.  Of all these seedlings, only 4 survived.  I asked my dad if he could go to the Chinese market to buy more seeds, and he gave me a whole new packet.  I direct sowed those into the ground, I hope they start sprouting soon.

Bo also gave me seedlings of pumpkin, I'm not quite sure what type of pumpkin these are, so it will be a bit of a fun surprise for me as they develop fruit. 

I planted the pumpkins into one of the raised beds.  The pumpkin plants are doing well, each of the seedlings are putting out true leaves.

A close up of the pumpkin plant.  I hope these are tasty pumpkins, I would love to can some pumpkin puree to use for future pumkin pies!