Sylvia, that's the one most folks make and like Mel says some like it some don't. I doubt if it will ever find it's way to my table but you never know. Remember I put that spinach and artichoke cassorole out for the family this year. Only two of us were brave enough to taste it. I liked it, surprisingly enough,however, I like spinach and artichokes. I had a lot of stuff on the buffett this year. Turkey Ham Dressing Gravy Fresh Green Beans Spinach & Artichoke Casserole Broccoli Salad Mashed Potatoes (no lumps) Garlic Cheese Grits Corn Pudding Cranberry Orange Relish Cranberry Orange Nut Salad Tomatoes Rolls Pecan Pie Peanut Butter Pie Pumpkin Pie Banana Pudding I think that's it.

Today, its a constant drizzle. The last few weather fronts that pass here, tend to swirl around over the Atlantic, and then swing back in for another round the next day. They predict that by Monday we may get a break. I had to put the heat back in here too, as its only in the low 40's outside. Most of my plants are in the greenhouse and luckily, I had just replaced all the broken glass last week. I need to get the tomato plants outside soon, as some are over 3 foot tall and have already toppled in their tiny pots. The 60 tomato plants suck up over a gallon of water almost every day. Today is Sushi making, actually California rolls. I just prepared (sliced thin strips), some pickled jicima (pronounced- hickima) as well as an english cucumber for the filling, along with rehydrating some wood ears with some beef broth. The fillings will also include carrot, scallion, sweet red peppers, and of course imitation crab meat. The real stuff is way too expensive. I have even used the pink colored pickled ginger as a filling in some. Just recently made a big batch of crab rangoon, and shrimp egge rolls too. My rangoon actually had some imitation crab meat in it, along with low fat creamed cheese, and some of my chives (actually a wild onion, I found out). The egg rolls were made using real shrimp, bok choy, onion, cabbage, carrot, and sweet red peppers. Both were deep fried and frozen for later use.

digdirt With the Fortex beans, I've been removing the stem-end of the bean and leaving the curved point. Maybe I should remove both in the rest of them. Now, note that they don't get mushy without blanching if I make sure there's no air in the package AND if they are put directly into boiling water from the freezer. That's what I normally do when cooking them anyway, so mushiness hasn't been a problem. David & oregonwoodsmoke I hear you about preferring the French cut! Many years ago I used to buy the Green Giant ones with slivered almonds, but then we got to be more set in our ways, I suppose. I like the mouth-feel of Frenched beans less than the whole-cut ones, but it sounds like a good thing to do with beans that may be tougher or older. The Fortex pole beans are truly the best I've ever grown and eaten, either fresh or frozen. They're very long, eight to ten inches at even pencil-size in diameter or smaller, no strings at all, and yes, a true green pole bean. Linda Lou I'd think blanching would be needed for canning beans maybe more than freezing them. Wouldn't freezing beans either slow down or altogether stop the enzyme action until they reach "deterioration" temperature, whatever that is? That's what I concluded after realizing that if I quickly freeze the just-picked beans (without exposing them to air in the package after freezing) and then put them directly into boiling water from the freezer, they are nearly indistinguishable from fresh-picked beans. I've also found something similar with corn. This was by accident. At least thirty years ago, I stopped at a road-side stand at the end of the summer and bought the guy's last bushel of corn for a dollar. I had a car-full of little boys who'd been to the beach, so when I got home, I didn't have time to shuck the corn that we didn't eat at dinner. So I tossed it into plastic garbage bags with the shucks still on and put the whole shebang into the garage freezer and promptly forgot them. Just before Christmas, I remembered those ears of corn. When I checked, they hadn't suffered freezer-burn, so I brought out a few of them to thaw and shuck. They were absolutely delicious! We had the rest for Christmas dinner and New Year's Eve! Truly, they tasted fresh-from-the-garden, too. So I do wonder, sometimes, about traditional wisdom, though in most cases it truly covers the situation. I suppose digdirt's advice is good advice for adventurous sorts like me, to test things out. [Of course, you can do that with freezing vegetables but not with canning them.]

I'm looking for two beans that I have been unable to find anywhere. If you have them, then I'd love to trade. Want: Duane Baptiste's Potato Bean Blue Bloom Bean - Irish heirloom carried by Abundant Life Foundation until the 2003 fire Have: Vermont Cranberry (dry bush bean) Blue Lake Black Seeded (pole bean) Tobacco Worm bean (pole bean)