So the obvious lapse of time between seedlings not yet in the ground (my last post) and harvesting vegetables (this one) shows how long I've been away from our blog, but I have two good excuses: a trip to Europe (with it's attendant preparations and recovery afterwards) in May, and a broken digital camera for most of the rest of the summer. I'm coming to re-acknowledge the fact that I have three children and a home to take care of and can't vacation carefree in Europe any longer, and my camera is now fixed, so I'm back!

I will post some pictures of the vegetable beds soon, along with a surprise that popped up and took over our compost pile this season. But back to the post title--beans! My mom gave me a pound of heirloom Vaquero beans from Rancho Gordo at Christmas. We cooked and savored most of them, but I kept a few aside to try in the garden this year. I knew what they should look like, but it was still amazing to pick the plain-looking dry pods today

and have these pop out!
I don't think growing bush beans for drying is the most efficient or cost-effective use of garden space, but I think I'll do a couple plants of different kinds each year, just because opening the pods made me so happy.

Simon and Stuart also helped me harvest some mature potatoes yesterday. If you've never done this with little kids (which I hadn't until yesterday), it's WAY better than an Easter egg hunt, and not just because the prize is potatoes instead of more unwanted candy. Digging in the dirt, finding earthworms and potatoes big and small--that is seriously my idea of fun! Yield was about 5 pounds for 4 eyes planted. Here they are: