Billy Weisbrich

Anne Miller wrote:As I harvest beans I separate then.

I don't always dry them as I like fresh beans.

I would recommend 15 Bean Soup. It is okay if there are not 15 different beans:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/105518/the-best-bean-and-ham-soup/

That looks delicious! Then again, I think you could probably cook just about anything with a ham bone and have it come out tasty  

Jake Esselstyn wrote:I always cook my mixed beans together. It would take a long time to sort them by color and shape. My grex includes about 10 different phenotypes. I suppose if I really wanted to select for the finest details of taste and texture, it might be worth doing. But time is precious and my palate just isn't very sophisticated.

I hear you on time being precious! Do you usually use your beans for soup or...? We eat a lot of refried beans in our house, and I'm curious how that would turn out with different cooking times, etc.

It's snowy and below freezing where I am, so what better thing to do while drinking my coffee than to think about beans?!

I'm quickly moving my gardening style towards the "landrace everything" school of growing, but I'm curious about how folks are cooking with their mixed up dry beans. Are we just throwing them all in a pot together or is anyone taking the time to separate out different types? What recipes work well with your bean mixes? Tell me your bean secrets!

Jackson Bradley wrote: I have never used lights. For those that do, does it keep the chickens from going to the roost early? If so, the observation here makes a lot of sense.

We do have lights, and I do find that it keeps them active a bit later in the evening. I haven't done too much of my own experimenting on that front though, I have a number of egg customers and I'm reticent to rock the boat lest the chickens start retaliating, ha ha ha.

Jay Angler wrote:I would like to point out that winter laying is a double edged sword. Yes, since Hubby has regular customers, we *need* to have some birds laying year round, but if birds don't get a break from laying, eventually regardless of diet, I find that their egg shell quality deteriorates (yes, they have free access to oyster shell).

We have two groups of layer ducks. One we are encouraging to lay (not particularly successfully and I think many of them are getting too old) and a second group we've let naturally take a break.

However, my chicken whisperer friend swears by hot porridge with lots of goodies added, is her trick to keeping them laying in the winter. She add things like turmeric and finely crushed egg shell to the oats.

I find this about the weak winter shells as well. My running theory was that they were supplementing their calcium intake with shelled bugs in the summer, which are now under the snow, but who knows.

How do you encourage a duck?!! My ducks don't do a single thing they didn't think of themselves.

I have no source to back this up, but a well-respected poultry farmer in our area recently posted about the whole daylight and egg-laying thing. His claim was that a hen experiencing a longer day (whether naturally, ie: summertime, or from lights in the coop) will eat more since she is active for more hours of the day. Chickens sleeping on their roosts don't usually come down to eat in the dark, even if there is food available. He claimed the extra eating would result in more eggs being laid.

Your chickens may be experiencing something similar but, by feeding them very nutrient-dense food, it sounds like you can skip out on the lighting!

Thanks everyone, this is good info! I haven't explored growing grains yet, so that wasn't even on my radar, but I'll definitely be looking into the oats now

To anyone who does try growing peas up their sunchokes (or anything else)... I'd love to hear updates or see photos.

We all know about three sisters companion planting for pole beans, but I'm curious if anyone has any insight or ideas for climbable companions for peas. Given their preference for cool spring growing, peas don't seem well suited for growing with corn. Maybe some kind of tall flower? Sunchokes are my leading idea right now, but I'm open to pretty much anything.

Additional info:
-these will be drying peas for soup, so everything can be cut down together at the end of the growing season rather than needing to reach into the mess for harvest
-I'm in south eastern BC, zone 6 ish