Growing mung beans

I always buy dried mung beans in order to sprout them during winter.  Just having those to munch on prevents withdrawals of crispy fresh produce during the colder months of the year.

This year I wanted to grow some more chick peas.

But, I accidentally grabbed a handful of Mung beans from the pantry.  My brain was obviously elsewhere - thank goodness I went to the right cupboard though lol

It was only once I had chucked them in the ground of the one raised bed, and had just covered them with soil, that I realized I had sown the wrong crop lol

Never mind.  I thought I'd let them grow and see what happened.

What a stroke of fortune.

A fortuitous, accidental crop of mung beans is
growing in one of my raised veggie beds

The mung bean plant is roughly 40 - 50cms (15 - 20") high and wide.  Given it's compact shape and size, it would be an ideal plant to grow in pots on a balcony too.  Perfect for using as a companion plant with next summers chard, eggplant, raddish and tomatoes, it will also provide some important shade for the ground at the base of those pants.

It is quite a bushy and compact plant.  I planted these quite late in the season, and the plants didn't send out runners and therefore didn't require bean supports and just got on with what they do best - grow mung beans.

Fresh mung beans in a pod

The pods are about 7 - 8cms long and 3 - 4 mm wide.  

Inside, the fresh mung beans sit snugly in their pod.  They are roughly twice the size of a dried mung bean.

And the taste...?

Almost ethereal lol  They are very delicate tasting and different to rehydrated / sprouted beans.

Fresh mung beans compared to dried beans

Honestly, it is quite fiddly to remove the beans from the small, tight green pod, but is well worth the effort.  The dry, dark brown pods 'crack' open quite easily though.

The beauty is, each mung bean plant grown from a single seed will provide 30 - 40 pods per plant or roughly 150 - 250 individual fresh, or future dried mung beans.  The pods form 4 pods together on the plant.  The mung bean plant can hold both fresh green pods, and dark brown pods (which encase the dried mung bean).

(Don't forget to freeze the shelled, harvested dried beans for 24 hours before storing in an air tight jar in your pantry. This helps to prevent weevils infesting your dried beans.)

Apart from providing that necessary crunch factor, mung beans are good for you too.  Check out their health benefits here.

One less thing to cross off my future shopping lists :)

Weather warnings...

We woke up to the strangest weather on yesterday (Monday) morning.

Bear in mind our weather fluctuates between 14 - 18oC at this time of year.

Well, on Monday morning we woke up to 27oC - at 8.30a.m.!!!  That is a mid-summer type of day, not early Spring.

I kid you not - this is not the moon, but
is the sunrise that greeted us yesterday
morning.  I have never see one so
 "other-worldly" looking

The climatic appearance outside was really weird too - high clouds, and a sunrise like I've never seen before - almost alien.

Add to that this article:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/604619/Long-range-weather-forecast-Britain-cold-winter-2015-arctic-snow-freeze

and:

http://news.sky.com/story/1551987/el-nino-to-drive-temperatures-to-record-highs

I reckon that those in the northern hemisphere would be well advised to stock up on whatever fuel they need to keep their homes warm this coming winter.  Don't wait until stocks run out.

We have already ordered our firewood for next winter and are just awaiting word that we can pick it up.  8 - 9 months to season it should mean that it is good and dry when it is required.

As for us this summer - we've just ordered another 2 X 5 000lt tanks and a 12volt portable solar pump - we have a spare 140watt solar panel, so we will run the pump straight off the panel with a return pipe so that it will be re-circulated every day ;)

That will give us 40 000 lts of rainwater (and whatever hasn't evapourated out of our +/- 350 000 - 400 000 ltr dam) that we don't have to drain from the municipal supply - if, and when, it becomes necessary in order to keep our crops / fruit trees alive.  All our existing tanks are overflowing - and we're praying that we get enough rain before the end of December so that we can fill the new tanks too, and thus be better equipped to handle the hotter months of January / February / March.

Boy, has this little trailer ever worked for us - as
 you can see it's back gate is in a sad state...
But it still managed to get 1.5 - 2 mtr3 of mulch
safely back to our smallholding

Then, we schlepped the trailer through to Swellendam last week and loaded it up with wood chips from the local sawmill.

The wood chip mulch showed evidence of
decomposition :)

Adding a bottom layer of alpaca poo, and then a layer of wood chip mulch all round should help to retain whatever water we give to all the fruit trees / veggie beds.

20 minutes of huffing and puffing by Rman and
 myself - the wood chips are all offloaded.
As much as is there, I think we may need yet one
 more load...

Preparation is the key - otherwise we have only ourselves to blame...

Frostbite

Very exciting things are happening at the Foothills Organic homestead today, but, as they aren't finished, I can't tell you anythng more... yet :)

What I can tell you though is that I was caught napping.

Although we had frost last year, I didn't loose anything to it.  But this year it's different.

I had sweet potatoes chitting for ages, and planted them in the repurposed tyres we have.  Last summer the tyres produced more than enough butternut squash to see us through winter, so I thought sweet potatoes would be a good crop to follow the butternut.

I filled them with lots and lots of gorgeous alpaca poo mixed in with the soil - it had to be a winner.  I thought.  I almost gloated.  And I definitely salivated at the prospect of the harvest.

Frost bitten sweet potatoes - are they
ex-sweet potaotes? Time will tell.  But, I
live in hope :)

But - as you can see, the frost got them.  The field mice had been nibbling at the leaves in one of the tyres, and what the mice didn't damage the frost did.

I'm not sure if they will sprout again?!  But, I've left them in situ with a protective straw covering - just in case.

Strange that, because I'd grown sweet potatoes on the farm before, and they didn't suffer from frostbite - maybe we just didn't have frost that winter...?

An eggplant in the protective cover of a broadbean
plant.  But, it still got the brunt of recent frost.
My mini forest garden didn't help...

Another crop which was grown out in the open for the first time were the eggplants.

They also came a cropper.

So, I'll just have to harvest what is left growing on them, share some with RSon (who is visiting this weekend) and Natasha, scoff some of them, and preserve the rest for later.

But, the lesson will be filed away securely for next winter.  Frosty isn't going to wreak havoc in this garden again - if I can help it :)

Don't forget - if you'd like to score some piquanté pepper seeds which I am giving away, please leave a comment on

http://ecofootprintsa.blogspot.com/2014/06/preserving-piquante-peppers-and-give.html before 6.00p.m. on 30 June 2014

"Time is fleeting..."

I just received this in an e-mail and can't wait to share it.

It's brought on one of my soap box moments...

If this doesn't make everyone who only looks at the images / reads the info below and go no further, or those who visits the site via the links I've provided, stop and pause, and think really hard on their contribution to these statistics, then I fear that this gorgeous, amazing, imited planet we call home is doomed.

http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks/earthclock/

http://www.poodwaddle.com/Stats/
click on Energy

http://www.poodwaddle.com/Stats/
click on Population

"The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has created several computer models to estimate global warming rates. These various models project from a 1.1 to 6.4C degree rise this century. We have chosen to use their A1B scenario (2.8C/century). We display 10 decimal places only to show the rate of rise. We do not wish to suggest that we can project with this level of accuracy. Please read the Global Warming page for more information.

CO2 levels are continuing to rise and so is the ocean. The population is growing, forests are shrinking, deserts are growing, and thousands of species (mostly insects and mostly in shrinking rain forests) are going extinct each year. These issues and many more face our world as we struggling to balance the needs of nations with the needs of the planet.

We at Poodwaddle.com consider ourselves journalists, not scientists or activists. It is our job to report the data, not take sides in controversial issues. Global warming is one of these issues. We do not advocate for global warming, or against it. Doing so would violating our professional integrity.

SOURCES: IPCC | Global Carbon Project | Earth Policy
DETAILS: Global Warming | Deforestation"

http://www.poodwaddle.com/Stats/
click on Environment

http://www.poodwaddle.com/Stats/Sources/

If this didn't shock you - what kind of member of our human society are you?

Would it really hurt you to make a few small changes to your lifestyles, especially if it could help heal our planet?

It's the small things which count.  The small things which a add up and CAN make a difference.

Would you be prepared to:

~ significanty adjust your electricity consumption (put on another jersey / wrap yourself in a blanket for warmth or dress in cool cotton when the temperatures rise, use candes instead of light globes, save up for a solar oven instead of switching on those power guzzling electric ovens);

~ walk or cycle or share a lift in order to reduce your petrol (gas) usage;

~ be more aware and conserve our most prescious resource, water (shower more frequenty, instead of bathing, fix leaking taps, think as your hand touches the tap, turn off the tap whist you're brushing your teeth, use a cistern filler to reduce the amount of water used when you flush the loo - better still, "if it's yellow, let it mellow..."), and install rain water storage tanks for use in your gardens;

~ try growing something you can eat, instead of just filling your gardens with pants which are beautiful to look at - research "forest gardens" to see how you can grow vegetables in between your "flowering" plants, or in pots on a patio or small balcony;

~ try and limited the number of goods you purchase which are wrapped in plastic;

~ buy local instead of imported;

~ prepare more completely fresh meals, as opposed to pre-packaged ready-made convenience (including junk food) meals (try aiming for once a week, then twice a week, etc.) - honour your body instead of just filling it with whatever is easy;

~ use less chemicals in your home and advocate using less in your work place (trust me, our house is only cleaned with vinegar and bicarb, and I'm proud of the shine / level of cleanliness that I achieve);

~ do more housework / garden work / wash your own car / play with your children, instead of travelling to your local (hopefully) gym to get your exercise, or dumping your kids off at the local movie house / games arcade in order to "entertain" them;

~ recycle whenever, and wherever, possible, and pass on anything which is still useful to those less fortunate than yourself...

... to mention just a few of the small, but active steps you can adopt that will significantly assist in planet Earth's healing process.

I'm not asking you to chivvy your local member of parliment to do what he should be doing as your representative in government - such as taking your requirements and God given rights to the highest powers in the land to make them change laws for the immediate benefit of our planet, biodiversity, animals and mankind, instead of for the immense monetary considerations which are dictating their actions.

I'm just asking you to make a few simple changes to your lifestyle.

Would it really hurt you????

Chivvy-ing your local member of parliment comes later... LOL

Hidden gems... in winter?

Squishing round the garden in my Wayne's Wellies to see the damage that the recent inclement weather had wreaked on my veggies, I was in for a surprise.

Bearing in mind that we are in mid-winter...

...I spied something odd...

Can you see what I saw...?

Can you see it in the picture above?

Hidden beneath my broad beans was one partially eaten, one green and two red capsicum :)

Capsicum - in winter...?

The plant had been protected from the weather by the broad beans in front.  I had left the capsicum plant in situ as it had a couple of fruit which were produced at the end of the season.  "Nothing lost, nothing gained" I figured at the time...

Then, in my hunt for peas for RMan (he eats them like peanuts :) and any veg that I can get in him, I reckon, is a win), I found something I wasn't looking for.  For the capsicum wasn't all that was lurking in the undergrowth...

Strawberries - they are only due to appear in
a couple of months time

Strawberries!

Forest gardening has unexpected rewards.  My other strawberries, which are in the open, are a tad frost damaged.  Now I know what to do to protect them next autumn / winter.

And, I had, in order to "feed" the beans and peas, and hopefully also deter slugs, sprinkled wood ash from the Dover stove beneath the beans and peas, only realizing afterwards that the strawberries might suffer.  Looks like I unwittingly did them some good...!

I am so excited about the lessons I am going to be taught by my large veggie garden, for there is nothing better than first hand experience to  "clock" something into the grey matter residing above my shoulders.  One can read, and read, but getting first hand experience - nothing better :)