Southside Place Community Garden

Fant

Yard long pole beans/Orient Wonder known as “dau gok” in the Orient. They are delicious and beautiful dark green pole beans. Seeds are slow to develop so pods stay smooth and slender. Beans best harvested at 12″ to 18″ long even though they can grow to 30″. Harvest any time! Cook them like you would any green bean but don’t overcook!

photo by Amy Bryant

Boil them for a few minutes, then dunk them in an ice water bath to stop their cooking and preserve their dark green color.

Have you seen the long purple bean-like things growing in the garden? They are purple hull peas, a Southern favorite much like black-eyed peas. All you have to do is split the purple shell or hull down the middle and push out the peas. Or better yet, have your kids do it while they are watching TV! Of course, you don’t eat the hull and must boil the peas for about 45 minutes. Any black-eyed pea recipe should work with these fresh peas. Or here is one that looks good:

Fresh Purple Hull Pea Recipe

• 2 pounds fresh shucked purple hull peas
• 2 garlic cloves, whole
• 1 tablespoon canola oil or bacon drippings
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 5-6 slices bacon

enough water to cover peas in the pot

Place oil or bacon drippings in a large pot over medium high heat. Add chopped bacon, onion and garlic. Rinse peas and add peas and enough water to cover the peas. Bring to a boil and cook about 30 minutes. Lower the fire to med-low, cover and cook until the peas are just starting to soften a little stirring occasionally. Add more water if necessary, you want at least 1 inch of water above the peas. When peas are done drain off some of the liquid season with salt and pepper and place in a serving bowl.

from http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2008/09/hot-water-cornbread-purple-hull-peas.html

Owner of Rarmm Excavations, donated delivery, equipment, and labor

Check out our new granite pathways

…for saving our backs

what takes us 4 hours to do, this nifty front loader can do in 30 minutes.

Ramm Excavation donate the delivery of a truckload of soil and a truckload of granite today PLUS the use of this tractor.  So Saturday May 24, 9am we spread granite in the walkways and plant squash and okra.

Photos by Missy Duffie

Thank you for supporting the SSPCG! What a great turn out we had. Weather was not too hot, music was great, company was fun. If you missed it, don’t worry. We’ll do it again next April!

Preschoolers from the Beehive Daycare planted sunflowers in an open circle to grow a “Sunflower House” based on the book. They also released 40 pounds of ladybugs into the community garden. So fun and so cute!