Strawberries bloomed in full the first week of May, but the fruit didn’t set. We only got 3 tiny berries this year from our plants. Don’t know if it was too much rain or the coolness, but other folks around us didn’t have a crop either. We were lucky that an Amish fellow’s field didn’t fail and we got to eat lots of strawberries anyway. The strawberry season was very short, about a week-long this year, so we felt lucky to get a flat.

Now, if you know that a flat is 8 quarts, that’s a lot of berries. Upon getting the strawberries in the house, we promptly ate the first quart right then and there! Since we had enough sugar and a box of pectin in the cupboard, we made a batch of freezer jam. Each batch makes about 5 cups of jam per quart. In total we made three batches of freezer jam. We like to share with friends, so when somebody comes to visit they might just take home a treat. The rest of the berries were eaten fresh in the next three days, so you could say we liked them a lot.

Nutritionally speaking, this 15 bean soup can be described as a low fat, no cholesterol, hi potassium, hi fiber and hi protein food. Each serving of 1/2 cup cooked beans (~ 35 g dry) has 120 calories with only 5 calories due to fat.

Per 1/2 cup serving:

120 calories
5 calories from fat

total fat 0.5 g
cholesterol 0 g

sodium 70 mg
potassium 470mg

total carbs 20g
dietary fiber 9 g
sugars 1 g

protein 8 g

calcium 4%
iron 10%
vit A 0%
vit C 0%

The 15 bean soup is a great dish for anyone wanting to watch their weight because it’s a low calorie food. This soup will help to increase fiber intake and it’s very filling. The low saturated fat intake is good for your heart, too!

• northern
• pinto
• large lima
• blackeye
• garbanzo
• baby lima
• green split pea
• kidney
• cranberry bean
• small white
• pink bean
• small red
• yellow split pea
• lentil
• navy
• white kidney
• black bean

The cranberry bean, pink bean, small red bean and small white bean were new to me. The others I recognize as vegetable dishes unto themselves or as ingredients in dishes like chili and other soups.

Check out the different varieties of 15 bean soups at Hambeens. By adding the herbs and spices that you like, you can make this soup your own! The chili peppers and chives in my version was probably like their Chili or Cajun varieties.

HOT SOAK: The Hot Soak is the recommended method for soaking beans, as it reduces actual cooking time and produces consistently tender beans.

1.      Place beans in a large pot and add 10 cups of water for every 2 cups of beans.

2.      Heat to boiling and boil for an additional 2 to 3 minutes.

3.      Remove beans from heat, cover and let stand for 4 to 24 hours.

4.      Drain beans and discard soak water.

5.      Rinse beans with fresh, cool water.

This method should make the beans more tender and that would be a good thing. For the best flavor remember to add the herbs and spices near the end of cooking.

Image by I Believe I Can Fry via Flickr

Chilly weather makes soup inviting. In the never-ending quest to find something good to eat, I picked up a package of Hurst’s Hambeens Brand 15 Bean Soup. Twenty ounces of the most colorful collection of dried beans you’ve ever seen.

The bean soup recipe from the package -

• one pound of ham or sausage
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1 15 oz. can stewed or diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp chili powder
• juice of one lemon
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Soak the beans in 2 qt. water in a large pot overnight. Drain liquid and rinse beans twice. Put on high heat, stirring occasionally until boiling. The directions say to simmer, uncovered for 2 and a half hours, but that wasn’t long enough. It took several hours and some more cooking the next day to get the larger beans soft enough that they didn’t crunch a little. The package states -

Depending on water hardness, cooking time may need to be increased.

Well, I guess we have some really hard water! Anyway, the bean soup turned out great, even if it did take hours to make.

I added a small amount of chopped ham, about half a pound, a can of stewed tomatoes, a cup of diced red onion, 1 tsp chili powder, 1 T lemon concentrate, 2 cloves garlic, and 3 crushed, dried chili peppers seeds and all to the pot before the beans were thoroughly cooked. The added ingredients were cooked so long I thought the soup would have no flavor, but I was wrong. I didn’t add the “flavor packet” that comes with the beans. Only a sprinkle of salt was needed at the table, none was added in cooking apart from that added by the ham.

The next time I think I would cook the beans harder during the initial hour or two of “simmering” time, but realize that using beans of different sizes means that some will take longer to cook.

15 Bean Soup with a dollop of sour cream and cut chives

To dress it up a bit, I went to the garden and snipped a couple of chives leaves for each serving and cut them into small pieces. Added a dollop of sour cream and sprinkled the whole bowl of bean soup with fresh-cut chives. Enjoy!

Lettuce, peas and onion sets are already planted in the garden. Last night’s snow would be called an “Onion Snow” because it covered over the onions that were planted a week ago. The ground is still cold, but when it warms up the onions will start growing quickly.

Onion sets in the garden with a little snow on top. Photos taken 1APR2011.

Onions that were water-logged last year and whose tops died back have sprouted. I was surprised that any root remained for re-growth, but the greenery is already 4-6 inches tall.

Garlic and chives are re-growing and soon they’ll be on the dinner table. You could as easily call this a “Chives Snow” instead of an Onion Snow. The wild chives that we see growing in the woods are the only green thing growing under the trees right now, except for a rare fern here and there starting to green up.

Perennial chives under the April Fool's Snow.

I think I’ll snip off some chives for a potato and egg dish tonight. Here’s a quick recipe for Potato, Egg and Chives:

• Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and add half an onion, diced.
• Cook the onions until soft.
• Add a couple of cubed potatoes, cover and steam until cooked through.
• Beat a couple of eggs in a separate dish or add them directly into the skillet.
• Cover for one minute and then flip the whole mess for another minute or just stir everything together.
• When the eggs are set, sprinkle with pepper and cut chives.
• Serve with toast. Yum!

Twenty-two Canada Geese flying North.

The Canada Geese I heard overhead this morning were flying due North and that was a happy sight!

Herbs and Herb Leaves

When you’re looking for info on herbs, don’t forget to include “spices” in your search. Lots of us have different definitions of what makes a spice or a herb. They both can be in your spice rack and it doesn’t matter what you call it, really.

Using herbs and spices in cooking can replace a lot of the salt, fats and sugars that we want to take out of our diets for the sake of good health.

Use this herb by hanging the cut stems upside down to dry for a few days. Carefully strip the leaves from the stems so as not to bruise or break them. Once dry, place the leaves in a glass jar and use for tea. Lends an anise-like taste.

Side branches grew to form a shrub that blossomed from the end of July through August. The long spikes of flowers were many and they gave pastel colors of light blue to faded violet to the garden.

Blue Giant Hyssop flowers in the herb garden.

The plant itself looks nice because insects don’t seem to enjoy eating the leaves very much. With the heart-shaped leaves intact the giant blue hyssop would make a nice addition to a native plant garden.

Terminal spikes of blue hyssop flowers.

The leaves and flowers can be collected and dried for tea, potpourri or sachets.

We tried broiling the garlic sprouts in the oven. It was delicious!

We harvested a few of the biggest sprouts. Some of them needed to have the ground broken before their roots would let go. Once they were pulled out of the ground the outer layers with most of the dirt were peeled away, leaving a very large scallion. The tops and roots were trimmed and any dirt washed off.

Then, the 8-inch scallions were placed in a shallow dish. A couple tablespoons of olive oil were poured over the garlic sprouts. Each sprout was turned in the oil so it was completely covered and then transferred to a foil-covered broiling pan. Black pepper was the only seasoning.

We put the pan under the broiler for only a few minutes and then you could hear the oil was hot. At this point you have to stay close and watch or the garlic will burn to a crisp. Turn the garlic when it browns on one side. Remove the garlic when it gets a little crispy on the other side and serve at once.

Forgot to get a picture this time, but there will be more broiled garlic sprouts to enjoy very soon. Does anybody else out there eat garlic like this? It had a mild flavor and everyone enjoyed it.

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We never had any garlic in the garden until last year. The year before last we were given some bulbs from a friend. He didn’t know what kind they were, but being Italian and a great chef, we took his word that it was some great garlic. He has since remarked that we’ll be mad at him this year because we’ll have garlic all over the garden. He’s not too far off the truth, either!

We planted in about 6 garlic bulbs in the Summer of 2008. Those bulbs matured and we harvested a few. The others were let go over the winter. In the late summer their seed heads fell over and planted many new garlic sets.

The garlic sprouts were thinned out and grew last summer and left to grow and overwinter. Now they’re growing again, and noticeably so! (Photo taken 29Mar2010.)

Garlic plants in the garden, two years old.

I’m looking forward to harvesting that garlic in the weeks ahead!

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