Saturday, July 23, 2011

I Love Free Stuff

Freebie beans saved from the plant that resulted from one lonely seed...

Sooo, one day at work back in late winter, a package came through the system that had popped open and dried beans from a seed packet spilled.  The beans were carefully put back into the packet and then into the package and continued on its way.  An hour or so later, I noticed a lone bean seed lying on the floor....

Rather than toss the lonely legume into the trash, what can a saver of seeds, such as myself, possibly do other take it home and plant it?!  I planted the little bean along with other seeds that I was starting for the garden, and when it was big enough I planted it in a corner of the asparagus/strawberry bed, all by its lonesome little self.  It grew like a bean possessed, and soon I had a nice crop of green beans (bush) and very early in the season since I started the little guy indoors well before our frost-free date.  Curious, I tasted one bean.  Very nice and stringless.  I let the rest mature, and now I've got a nice little pile of bean seeds to plant out next year.  There are still a few beans maturing on the plant, but I'm guessing I'll end up with another 20 or so bean seeds in addition to the 88 that I already have.

I wish I would have taken note of the packet of beans so I'd know what kind these are; they're probably something like Bush Blue Lake or another popular bean.  I'll always know them as "Work Beans."

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