Many places sell a bean mix that contain a variety of different lentils, peas and beans.  I used mung beans (these are the beans that sprout the long white bean sprouts you typically find in Asian food) and green peas as I like the combination of starchy and sweet favour.  Plus they both sprout in 3-4 days so they are compatible for timing.

Fill a 1L mason jar 1/4 of the way with dried organic beans/peas.  Cover them with water and leave on your counter to soak overnight, 8-12 hours.  Cut a square of cheesecloth and secure it tightly with a canning jar ring.  Strain off water and set back down on your counter.  Rinse the jar contents now 4 x per day, straining off all the liquid.

After 4 days or so, the contents of the jar sprout and jar will start to fill up – it’s time to eat them!  Add raw to salads and sandwiches or toss into stir-fries and soups.  I have also heard of people adding them to smoothies although I’m not tripping over myself to try that one.  Any other ideas on how to use these sprouts in recipes?

See this post featured at At the Picket Fence’s Inspiration Friday and North Coast Gardening’s Miscellany Monday.

Update: I buy my seeds from West Coast Seeds but you can also find them online here.

Here is what I’ve harvested from my community garden and home gardens.  While I don’t grow a lot of any one thing, I grow a few of a lot of things.  Over 100 varieties of edibles making this definitive season of plenty.

From my community garden plot:

• Potatoes: Red Chief, mystery white variety

• Tomatoes: Black Russian and La Roma
• Beans: Kentucky Wonder Brown, Kentucky Wonder Wax, Fortex Filet, Orca, and Purple Peacock
• Grapes

• Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Peas (the last of them this week due to powdery mildew taking over)
• Beets: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden
• Squash: Small Wonder spaghetti, yellow spaghetti, Little October pumpkins

From my home garden:

• Tomatoes: Siletz, La Roma, Green Zebra, Red Zebra, Sungold Cherry, Sweetheart Grape, Isis Candy, Gold Nugget, Patio, and Moneymaker.  I recently saw a recipe for roasting them in a dutch oven and now I have one on my kitchen gadget wish list along with a food strainer for making roasted tomato sauce.

• Green onions
• Italian Prune Plums
• Beets: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden

• Fairy Tale eggplant
• Basil: Organic Sweet Basil, Thai Basil
• Peppers: Filius Blue, Thai Dragon, and Garden Salsa
• Aunt Molly’s ground cherries

• Wild arugula and lettuce
• Rainbow chard
• Soybeans

I took some time this week to reflect on this abundance and the colder months to come.  While the days are long and busy now, I’m growing as tired as my plants are from a healthy growing season.  But the glut of produce is available now to enjoy.  The rainbow of colours and fresh flavours will soon be a fond memory so I best savour this season.  With these thoughts I planted my winter seeds and regained my energy for picking and packing away summer’s bounty.

thanks to Daphne’s Dandelions for hosting another wonderful Harvest Monday.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups of quinoa
• 1-1/2 cups canned black beans
• 1/3 cup carrots, finely diced
• 1/3 cup snow peas, finely diced
• 1/3 cup snap beans, finely diced
• 1/3 cup feta cheese, chopped into small cubes
• 1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and rough chopped
• 1/2 cup leeks
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the quinoa according to package directions, taking care to rinse at least five times before cooking to eliminate bitterness. In a separate pan, saute leeks in olive oil until soft and set aside to cool.  Meanwhile combine apple cider vinegar and well-rinsed black beans together in the salad bowl you will be using.  Let the beans marinate until the quinoa is cooked and cooled, then drain the beans and assemble the salad by combining the beans, quinoa and chopped veggies.  Stir to combine and drizzle with a dressing made of lemon juice and a good quality olive oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Store in the refrigerator and serve as a healthy lunches or a side dish to chicken or pork.

I’m currently harvesting the following veg from my home garden and the community garden plot:

Beans: Purple Peacock, French Filet

Peas: MammothMelting Snow Peas

Tomatoes: Black Russian, Siletz, Sweetheart Grape, Gold Nugget Cherry, Sungold Cherry, Isis Candy Cherry, Red Zebra, Tumbler

Sema Fino Florence Fennel

Beets: Detroit Supreme, Red Ace, Chioggia, and Golden

Chard: Rainbow, Fordhook Giant, Rhubarb

Peppers: Filius Blue, Garden Salsa

Basil: Organic Sweet Basil, Thai Basil

Squash: one Gold Nugget was ready at the community garden

Potatoes: Red Chief, French Fingerlings

All this has made for some interesting recipes like carmelized figs, fig ginger jam, walnut pesto, and mixed veggies ragu.  I’ll be sure to share very soon.  If I can get out of the kitchen long enough.  help.

I activated my memory banks for a soultion and remembered that a few months ago I read a post by Dan at Urban Veggie Garden Blog where he mentioned Pea Brush.  Pea Brush, he kindly explained to me, was a structure using a bunch of branches as a netting system to stake up peas.  So I got a bunch of lovely water sprouts from my smoke bush that I had been saving (for some reason) (and luckily) and turned the pea brambles in to these pea-ceful displays: 

I think they look great and it sure fit into my budget well.  I’m getting lots of peas now and I’m in no hurry to replace them with other veg.  Give peas a chance, I say.  

OK, sorry, that’s the last pea pun for the day.  Happy Harvest Monday, everyone.