Day Seventeen

French Green Beans

While harvesting for dinner with Jennifer last night it occurred to me that I haven't shown any pictures of our gardens.  So tonight I'll show a few.

Black Eye Beans

These beans grow very easily but are a little hard to get out of their shells.  They have provided several meals this month.

Sweet Potatoes in front of Taro

Sweet Potatoes are easy to grow and do not require much nutrition.  They grow by planting about 8 inches of the vine leaving just two or three leaves above the soil.  Taro also grows very easily.  A single corm puts out 8 or more keikis for future planting while the main corm provide several pounds of nutritious food.

Sugar Cane

Sugar Cane grows easily and fast.  Just putting an 18 inch stalk into the ground quickly sends up many canes.  In 12 to 18 months this clump of canes are ready to harvest.  Each cane stalks provides close to a gallon of juice.  It is a great drink and is very nutritious and jam packed with vitamins and minerals.

Basil and Swiss Chard

Basil grows so well.  Its flowers attracts bees which we hear are in trouble here in Hawaii and around the globe.  It makes wonderful pesto.  We use swiss chard for stir fry along with sweet potato vine tips and beet tops.

We grow all of these wonderful foods with NO STORE BOUGHT FERTILIZER.  That's right, we propogate microbes to do natures work.  They break down the organic material and soil minerals and work with the plants roots to feed the plant.  This week while harvesting, I was blown away by finding large colonies of white mold on the plant roots.  These colonies are microscopic microbes in such huge numbers that they are visible.