The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society has a great calendar of events for the coming year! There will be something for everyone, and as you know, every meeting is a great chance to visit and compare notes with other gardeners. The next meeting will be on Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 PM in the Sunshine Room at SIGN on North Street. Our guest speaker will be Danielle Barrett from Western Alfalfa Milling in Norquay, and Danielle will be telling us everything we need to know about fertilizing with alfalfa pellets. It's always fun to learn about something new that can help our gardens! And remember, you don't have to a member of the club to come to the meetings. If the topic interests you, please join us!
I hope you had a chance to drop in at the Prairie Sun Seed Festival last week. It was a great afternoon, with lots of interesting things happening all at once! We were lucky enough to win a little kitchen composter, so I can't wait to try that! But we also bought some very interesting seeds from Agrarian Garden ([email protected]), and I want to tell you about them.
They are all bean seeds, and Keith was joking that he felt like Jack and the beanstalk with these exotic new varieties! We did not know anything about these beans, but chose them on a very scientific basis: either because we liked the name, or because they were beautiful beans! But here are our selections, in alphabetical order.
The first is called "Canadian Wild Goose". Who can resist a bean with that wonderful name? These beans are beautiful, small, like a navy bean, but a creamy color with grayish speckles. This very old variety is disease resistant and early, always a bonus! I did some homework and learned that these are great for soup, or to make baked beans.
Next is a bean called "Jacob's Cattle". This bean is a looker, too, about the same size as yellow or green wax bean seeds, but white with purple splotches. My homework tells me that this, too, is an early bean, and another bean that's good for baking.
Our third bean is "Pepa De Zapallo": now there's a flamboyant name! And the colors of the bean match: golden ochre with maroon swirls. Pepa originally called Chile home, and is also known by the name Tiger's Eye. I read that this bean is excellent in chili, so that tells me that it must be a good firm bean that holds its shape when cooked.
Bean number four is "Ukrainian Comrades" , and the bean actually does call Ukraine home. These are smaller beans, with a most interesting color! Once upon a time, Mom told me how her Mom, my Grammie, used to color boiled eggs using onion skins for the dye. Well, of course we had to try it, and the eggs became a beautiful, soft golden color. These beans are that color! You and I would eat the pods of this bean, but we could also dry the pods and use the beans later.
Who knew that there were so many interesting kinds of beans ? Because of space limitations, we'll have only a short row of each, but what fun it will be to see how they turn out! Beans are a great choice for our gardens: they require little maintenance; for the most part they are quite disease resistant; and they provide us with a veggie that is loaded with benefits. There is a reason that people the world over have been eating beans in various forms for hundreds or thousands of years! Beans provide protein, fibre, and are a source of natural minerals. Just do a little reading about them, and you'll discover what a health treasure they are!
Have a great week, and enjoy the longer days!
