Black Eyed (cow)Peas

Both our buckwheat and cowpeas we planted back in June are almost completely matured and ready for harvest. Now since we're using them to enrich the soil, we are not going to "harvest" the buckwheat or cowpeas (plus I don't own a combine). What we've found very interesting are the fact that both plants continue to bear fruit in cycles. The buckwheat blooms and then reblooms. The cowpeas grow several cycles of pods, as shown in this picture. As you can see, there are both "ripe" tan pods along side green yet-to-be-ripe pods on the same plant. Really cool that these plants continue to bear fruit over and over.

I was curious to shuck some of these bad boys and just see what I got. I spent about an hour and a half pulling these beans out of the pods and was amazed to realize that we actually grew food.


The hour + of work I did yielded about enough beans for two people to eat dinner and it's actually quite tedious work. Gives you a real appreciation for how people in the old school did it. Here's what I got:
I mean, there's enough of these beans on the lot to feed a whole family for a few months, I'd venture. I got this little basketfull of beans. I've decided to store them away as food for the inevitable mass-migrations that will occur as global warming continues to hasten its pace. See below for a visual representation of what I'm talking about.




While I don't actually think that we'll have a tidal wave, tornados over L.A. and a frozen Statue of Liberty over a nine hour period, I do believe global warming exists and that human kind is at least in part to blame (maybe completely to blame). Otherwise, I think the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" seems pretty accurate for what we're in for. So when the shit hits the fan, I'll have two servings of cowpeas all saved up, so ha ha.

Here's all the left over husks I dumped in my compost pile. Yeah. I compost. It's awesome to see the volume of crap you end up not throwing in the trash. Plus it gives you an "in" with indie chicks, so yeah. I compost.

Texas "Mountain" Laurels

I'm not sure how they got their name, but I love them. Texas Mountain Laurel is an evergreen shrub/tree that is very hardy (once established but a major pain to get to that point). It is known for the very beautiful and lovely-scented purple blooms it gets in Feb-March each year. Here's what they look like:

Anyway, I have a major obsession with these guys. In February I took seeds from one of my full-grown guys and attempted to start my own Texas Mountain Laurel nursery/farm in my backyard. I started with 23 of them and have lost about 8 since. These trees grow little seed pods in the spring. Inside those pods are rock-hard red beans. These are your seeds. Do not try to eat them. You will break a tooth.

Did I mention they are SLOW GROWING. Geez. The ones I've grown are about 6 months old and 3" tall. Ridiculous. Of course, this is why they are so expensive to buy if you get them at a fairly mature age. Here's the group I have now.The two guys on the front row didn't make it. I've notified their families.