Cooking Chinese Long or Asparagus Beans



Chinese Long Beans on a Platter



You may not mind the “overcooked asparagus” taste produced while steaming them or the hard slippery texture of the skins when sautéing, but as for me I prefer a taste similar to the New England varieties of green beans bought from the store. In order to achieve this palatable taste and texture you must blanch the beans. To do so, start with a big pot of water with the water boiling. Pour in a generous helping of salt (at least ¼ cup per gallon). Once the salt has dissolved in the water, dump the uncut beans in the water and cover for 5 minutes. No more, no less. They should now be very dark green and tender, but not too soft. Use a colander to drain saltwater brine from the beans and immediately rinse with cold water or soak in ice water until beans return to room temperature. Then cut the beans. You can then add some butter in a pan and stir them around until the butter melts or you can just freeze them in bags for later use.

Chinese Long Beans



Chinese Long Beans are very prolific

There are quite a few beans that can really take the heat, but there are not a whole lot that can take the heat, are not eaten by lace bugs, and are very disease resistant. Enter the Chinese Long Bean, or Asparagus Bean. This native of Asia is resistant to most anything thrown at it. There do seem to be some forms of rust it can contract and the same weevil that bores through mesquite pods will also attack these beans. Otherwise you are looking at a constant supply of beans able to pump out enough beans to feed 1 person on 2-3 feet of 6’ tall bean plants. Though this bean can cross-pollinate with the black-eyed pea, or cowpea, the method of pollination I see most is from ants visiting the flowers. The beans secrete a nectar that attracts the ants who either protect the beans, pollinate the beans or both. You can expect to have to shake off a couple ants during bean harvest. Expect to have to harvest every 2-3 days. I judge when I need to harvest based on the thickness of the bean. About the thickness of a #2 pencil is just right. In short, the asparagus bean is a disease resistant and heat loving bean that produces heavily, but requires some extra work in one specific area. This area is the most important part for those who grow for food– figuring out how to cook them! After several years of asking around and researching I finally figured out  - and it was well worth it!

Chinese Long Beans Take over even in 110 degree temperatures

Rounde de Nice

A smaller squash on the left and a larger one on the right

I used to enjoy growing zucchini. However, once I had lost multiple zucchini plants to the notorious Squash Vine Borer I decided to find a zucchini variety that was both compact and could resist the borer. For those of you not acquainted with this beautiful moth, it lays eggs on the squash stem, the larvae chew into the stem, then the larvae eat the stem of the plant from the inside-out. After doing some research I found a variety called Rounde de Nice that I could still grow on a bush and just might resist the vine borer. When I was visiting my dad in California several years ago he gave me some very old seed. I propagated a few plants, grew it out, then sent him some new seed. I found that though this variety is not “bullet proof” it produces a steady crop of zucchini that is very tasty. After harvesting some of this squash for seed I inspected the vine and found that the vine was attacked after all. What saved the plant was a that the stem re-rooted as the plant grew. This is a trait that is found mostly in the C. Moschata (butternut varieties of squash) but rarely in the C. Pepo (zucchini varieties of squash). Overall I was very impressed with the quality of this variety as a summer squash. 

Rounde de Nice can second as a Jack-O-Lantern - if you can cut through the shell.

Some thoughts about Tomato Diseases



Overwintered Tomatoes with Disease



I think it is completely ridiculous that we (gardeners and consumers) grow a plant that has so many problems and is prone to so many diseases. Although cucumbers have their fair share of diseases tomatoes take the cake. Cornell University maintains a good website to identify some of the major tomato and cucumber diseases. As if the tomato plant’s tolerance of only “mild” weather wasn’t enough, you cannot even plant them in the same soil for more than one season without getting diseases. My first major mistake with tomato diseases came in the early summer of 2010 when the compost that was my summer garden was not ready for planting in. So I decided to plant tomatoes in my winter garden that had just overwintered a crop of dying plants. I had been composting the old tomato waist and I’m sure some of the compost got on the plants. To make matters worse, I planted my tomatoes right next to a south facing wall. By the time June came around the radiant heat was making it so that I had to water several times a day. For those of you reading this – this is a perfect storm for any tomato disease – high temperature, diseased plants being composted, new plants being brought in, and lots and lots of water. Septoria spreads like wildfire. In my case, little black spots showed up on the bottom leaves then the leaves began to die. The fruit began cankering only where it touched the ground and sometimes not just when it touched the ground. Each tomato variety I had worked so hard to nurture through the winter began dropping its brown dried-up leaves from the bottom up. I later solarized but even solarizing only diminished the disease. It was a gardener’s nightmare! I have since learned a whole lot more about growing tomatoes – especially here in the desert.

Septoria - The king of Diseases - working its way up

In my opinion, Septoria is the king of the vegetable diseases. Yes – even worse than cucumber mosaic virus. It affects so many different crops and is transmitted through infected seed. Although I had some slight indications of it as recently as this last summer I believe that my mustard green crop will help me to wipe out this infection once and for all!

So – what is the proper way to take care of tomatoes once you notice disease? Remove any form of infection and throw it out. Do not compost, do not touch any other plant until you wash your hands and wash whatever touched the infected plant. Once you notice a plant really getting an infection you could go out and buy some forms of disease control but it is often better just to pull it out (roots and all) and throw it out. This is the shame of growing tomatoes – that they have been bred to produce delicious fruit while being so susceptible to disease.

2011 Sweet Potato Harvest

Last year I started my sweet potatoes very early. I bought the potatoes from a local grocery store and had the slips growing in the ground between April and May. They slowly took off and grew all over. Although I did add some fertilizer to the plants over time and the fertilizer was low in nitrogen the vines took over. Pretty soon they took up more space then everything else. While selling some cucumbers at the farmer’s market I was approached by an individual who was interested in buying my sweet potato crop. About a week later I excitedly turned over my soil to discover only half a dozen very small tubers. In contrast, this year I bought one sweet potato that was grown locally. I began planting the slips later – between June and July. No fertilizer was added and very little was done to take care of them. However, this year’s harvest was much better – I still need to buy a scale but I estimate the weight at least 5 pounds if not more.

My 2010 Sweet Potatoes planted in late April -  Poor crop

2011 sweet potato patch hiding behind squash & beans

My 2011 crop from 1 potato planted very late.