Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Long Beans, where are you?

My Long Bean plants are growing very lush and healthy.....but where are the flowers?


Photo taken on 17/03



Photo taken this morning


I have two of these planted in the ground near my belimbing tree, supported by the recycle TV antenna. These plants are already four months old and they are not showing any signs of flowering yet! According to my neighbour's friend, who used to grow lots of long beans, I should prune the leaves to make way for the flowers, and what shall I do with the leaves, boil it in soup! My neighbour told me that the leaves can be cooked in ikan bilis soup, and it is very tasty. Have any of you tried eating the leaves before? I never knew the leaves can be eaten! Did a search from the net, and found out that the young and tender stems and leaves can be eaten. So I cut some leaves this morning and cook it in some ikan bilis soup, surprisingly it is quite good, taste a little bit like our local spinach. The young and tender leaves are nice, but the big ones are tough. This is just a trial, as I was very curious how it will taste like! Will be cooking it again when I have time to prune the leaves these few days. 



Found a leech under one of the leaves and ....


a couple of snails, no wonder they love to eat the leaves, the young and tender leaves tastes good!

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Harvested more spring onions today!

Harvested half a kilo of spring onions, 528gm! And this is just from one container, I have two more containers that I will harvest soon! This is definitely my favourite veggie to plant! 


11 comments:

  1. Wah!Your long bean plants sure are lush and healthy!Mine are not that lush but I got plenty of long beans so far! Usually I put eggshells and water them with rice water, why not try that.Envy your spring onions harvest..but what do you do with those since they cant keep too long in the fridge?

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  2. Hi Shida,
    Long Beans from your garden to your cooking pot! That is great, I'm waiting to do just that! I usually put the rice water to other plants, now I have to rotate! :)
    I use some of the spring onions in my fried kueh teow for my kids' lunch today, the other half I gave it to a friend. Will harvest more these few days and already planned to cook a chicken dish! Going to Tesco again very soon! Ha! Ha!

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  3. I had same problem with long beans once! In the end i uprooted the plant ater 7mths of waiting! I think i over fertilize the plant! Long beans does not need fertilizer actually.
    Monkeys use to eat the young leaves and shoots so i assume it's edible too but never try since i was worried about the virus in the monkey saliva....sigh....

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  4. Love your long bean vine! So green and lush. I am sure the flowers will follow soon. I am delighted by your harvest of spring onions. Never tried the long bean leaves soup though. Hope the soup will taste good. Have a wonderful week!

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  5. Young shoots of pumpkins, keledek and timun can also be eaten... Never grow long beans yet.., Angled beans or kacang kelisa/kacang botol, grow like a bush first, then they decide to flower and produce beans.... of course pruning will help to quicken harvest.

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  6. So that's where all the onions go to!!!

    Joy, would it be too much to ask for you to vote for me in some contests? I have the buttons on my blog.

    Fyi, there are many different categories in the Digi Contest. You might want to participate in the Makan2 category. I will vote for you.

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  7. Joy, great to see that healthy vine. I sure hope they will bear fruits soon! Next time you must try the dwarf long beans, my second batch of fruits are growing really well!

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  8. Wah, so much spring onions! I am struggling with my vege venture :(

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  9. Stop fertilising the beans;-). They look so lush and healthy promises of many beans to harvest. Nice spring onion harvest! My kacang panjang season is over, they bloom but produce no beans too cold.

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  10. The leaves from the long beans... my mum used to take the mature ones to cook in coconut milk, or just plain soup... they are more crunchy than the young ones, she said... but I think they are quite tough...

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  11. Onion is still your proud hehe. I think Diana is correct, stop fertilizing the beans. My french beans are still giving me fruits after so many months despite very little fertilizer on them.

    I'm away from blog temporary until my eyes get better. Thanks for the mother's day wishes. Happy belated mother's day to you too :)

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