Since the eating of the single snake bean, 2 more snake beans have since grown, bringing my total yield now to 3 snake beans. It’s a little pathetic referring to them in singular, countable terms but this is how it is for me. Anything more than 1 is a damn good thing.
I came home 2 days ago to discover that one of this 2 snake beans went missing! Mind you, don’t find me a drama queen but when you have only 2 precious snake beans hanging, you will find it quite a shock losing one.
So here’s how the conversation went between me and my mom for the accounting of the missing snake bean.
Me: Gasp! How come it’s missing???? (starting to get abit high pitched)
Mom: Your dad’s friend from China came just now to visit and took that snake bean back with him.
Me: What!!! He can’t just take it like that! Don’t they have snake beans in China?!?!? Why take mine?!?!?! (at this point, I am whining abit)
Mom: He says that the ones he grows in his backyard are not as long as yours, so he wants your snake bean for its seeds to grow them back home.
Me: Oh.
Since then, I find it so great that my snakebeans seeds will be going far away from here and continuing its line and flourishing somewhere in a backyard in China where there will be alot more space than my balcony.
So uncle, I’m totally cool about it now, it’s okay for you to take my snakebean. Grin.
More updates: I have counted 3 more flowers to date so we should have some more snakebeans coming. Yippee.
9 comments
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April 27, 2008 at 11:27 am
margo72
Yippee! Say, what do snake beans really taste like anyway? I mean, are they watery, herbal tasting, strong and earthy, beany, what would you say they taste like in comparison to other kinds of fresh green beans?
April 27, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Christina
See, you’re already in the seed-trading game now. Isn’t amazing how far and fast one falls into gardening?
April 28, 2008 at 6:06 am
Kate
If the bean pods weren’t dried up and brown then they wouldn’t have been mature enough to save for seed and he will have wasted 1/3 of your crop! Like when my mother asked someone, many years ago, “how do you know when your apples are ripe?” They replied “Try one” and she said “That would be my whole crop!” lol
April 28, 2008 at 3:02 pm
rummi
Assuming that snake bean works the same as a dancing serpent, maybe of u play your pipe, your snake bean will come wriggling back to you
joke aside, better that the snake bean had emigrated than to be stolen
April 29, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Kristi
Wow, your gardening expertise is going international!
May 3, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Teresa
Hi Margo! I would love to mail you some snake bean seeds if you want to try growing them. Please email me at ttlf7 at yahoo dot com. Taste them for yourself! I think it’s slightly different from other fresh green beans. I would say earthy and beany. Isn’t it great that every bean is unique?
Hi Christina. LOL, I’m hardly seed trading but it’s really amazing how gardening is.
Hi Kate, DARN! you don’t say… I hope he did get something out of that long pod, that was like 50% of my snake bean crop. I really identified with your mom’s story as well. LOL. My mom is saving the third pod for herself and she’s really making sure that it’s all brown and dried up. Thanks for the tip!
Hi Rummi, if playing the pipe makes them increases the yield, I don’t mind picking it up man.
Hi Kristi, please, it’s hardly an expertise. Hehehe… But my snake beans are going to China and maybe to Margo!
August 4, 2008 at 2:11 am
Karen
I came upon your snake bean story after trying to find images from google for “pole bean flowers”. Have you ever seen one? It’s a beautiful blue flower, open only in the morning and then turning into a bean that afternoon. (This is all new to me. I’ve learned this only from watching the pole bean plant that is growing on the fence between us.)
I also have my own “garden”… consisting of one pot with cherry tomatoes, one pot with beefstake tomatoes, and a few pots of different color of zinnea flowers. And every now and again a sunflower seed will drop from my bird feeder and plant itself! Those are the types of surprises that I love, though I’m not really fond of sunflowers… They look great for a few weeks but then their heads stop turning from east to west and and it just hangs their… though I do enjoy watching the birds that feed from the hanging sunflower head.
Well, just wanted to let you know… I’m not one for reading blogs, but I T R U L Y E N J O Y E D Y O U R story.
~Karen~
August 5, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Teresa
Hi Karen! Thanks alot for dropping by and for your note. Wow, I’ve never heard of a pole bean flower and it sounds amazing. Thanks for sharing it with me and your garden sounds wonderful as well, esp. on the surprises part. Pity that you didn’t leave a link, would love to read on more about your stories. And thanks for the encouragement!
September 10, 2009 at 10:38 pm
sandrar
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.