There are beans in my attic (take 2)

OK, so you are supposed to dry shelling beans on the plant. Problem was, I wanted to pull our bean teepees down to make room for a fall planting. So about a month ago I pulled all the Scarlet Runner Beans off the vines with the intention of drying the beas for soups. I somehow thought that you dry beans like you save seed for other varieties - by shelling them and laying them out on a flat surface. It turns out, they are supposed to be dried in the pods so we had to invent a space to dry them....

Introducing the world's first bean hammock. They seem to be happy up there and are moving along quite nicely. And best of all...I have lettuce sprouts where the beans used to be.

Apple Pie

Denise and I have worked out a great one-two punch in the pie arena. I make the filling and she rolls out a great olive (or canola) oil whole-wheat crust. Once I realized how much fruit we were going to cook through this summer/fall, I realized we needed to find a healthier way to make pies. The plum, pear, and apple trees have been keeping us busy. I think we're at the last apple harvest of the year...but I'm going to try to squeeze one more out of the tree next weekend.

Below you can find my Pie Filling and a link to Dene's crust.

Basic Filling (feel free to add ginger, cloves, etc.)

10 apples or pears (or half and half)
1/2 cup sugar
3 lemons (juice and zest to preserve fruits while peeling)
3 tbsp. flour

Crust

http://whatscookingamerica.net/piecrst.htm

Pickled Green Tomatoes

We've all heard about Fried Green Tomatoes, but my mom insisted that we try making pickled green tomatoes with the balance of the crop that didn't quite turn out this year. Rounding out the pickle were some of Denise's Lemon Cucumbers (one of the highlights of our first growing season) and some sliced onion.

We sliced them up and salted them overnight and I canned them today. You can find the recipe in the New York Times Cookbook. Haven't tasted them yet, but according to Mama Parsons there isn't much better than a pickled green tomato on dark bread with butter. Kind of helps get over the fact that tomato season is over. However, I've already got a shortlist of eight tomato varieties for next year...kind of a leap from the three this year...