The growing season is short in Newfoundland, so harvest tends to be late August, stretching into October. I've been growing some heirloom vegetables this year, both in the greenhouse and the new vegetable garden with mixed results. Chioggia beets, purple carrots, cherokee and zebra tomatoes as well as a host of potatoes varieties from banana to Irish Cobbler are all slowly maturing and I sneak a few here and there to try. They're fabulous!The weather this summer has been beyond awful with a lot of cool, wet weather interspersed with incredibly hot, humid weather. Neither seemed to have done the plants much good. However the beans seem to have thrived despite the conditions with bumper crops of green, yellow and purple beans being harvested, blanched and frozen as well as eaten what seems daily lately, along with the ever present zucchini.
The purple beans 'Royal Burgundy' are stunning visually, being almost black they are so dark, but unfortunately turn dark green once you cook them. I grabbed a handful yesterday and did a sketch of them in my Moleskine. I added my super quick recipe for roasted beans. You can use green, yellow or purple beans for this but be warned, they are addictive!
3 comments:
Jeanette, I buy purple beans at our local farmers' market. My family loves them roasted. The girls have taken to calling them "magic" purple beans since they change to green when cooked. I froze some this weekend too, but, shame on me, didn't take the time to sketch any.
However, I do have a watercolor of the Purple Haze carrots in progress. I plopped them down and started painting them from life the day we bought them. Unfortunately dinner time arrived before I got the leafy part painted, so it is waiting patiently to be finished. I love colorful veggies but am always torn between painting them and eating them. :D
Oh I know that feeling Stacy. I grow or buy fruits or vegetables just to draw or paint them - the eating part is just an afterthought! :)
The Purple Haze ones are coming along nicely in the garden and I'll take some photos of all these unique veggies to inspire me during the winter.
Wow; never even heard of purple beans (though I'm not really a bean person so I wouldn't know). My zucchs are outta control as are my tomatoes. And the pumpkins haven't started to ripen yet! Ooooooooooooh, looks like a bumper crop of still life paintings on my horizon!
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