good morning Welcome to our garden I
want to talk about this incredible heat
tolerant plant that can be planted in
the dead of Summer here in Texas and
still Thrive let's talk about it
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today I'm going to be harvesting our
zipper cream peas well what are those
you ask zipper cream peas are commonly
referred to as a cow pea but they're
actually what is known as a runner Bean
a runner Bean is a legume actually and
these are particularly high in protein
but this plant behind me grows about two
to three feet tall and it's semi-binding
so it'll kind of hang over to the side
and start Vining out a little bit and it
has huge leaves on it what those leaves
do is really cool they shade out
everything below it so it's great for
weed suppression I don't have much of a
weed issue with these growing in the
garden and as I mentioned in the
beginning these are incredibly heat
tolerant so I can plant them right now
in Texas and it's going to be 95 today
you can see that they're thriving behind
me with no issues whatsoever and the
really nice thing is these are
indeterminate so they will continue to
produce through out the lifespan of the
plant and I should be able to get three
or four harvests out of them so another
variety of cow pea that's really famous
everybody knows about it especially here
in the Southern United States is the
black eyed pea and that's not really a
pea it's a runner Bean but that is in
the same family as this we've got purple
hulls pink eyes zipper creams regular
creams and they are delicious so they
have this really creamy texture
essentially when cooked and they're kind
of melt in your mouth but the
interesting thing about this is that
they can be picked in various stages so
this Variety in particular takes about
65 days to maturity well I would let
that go a little long because I've been
out of town and some of them have dried
on the Vine with runner beans you can
let them dry in the vine and then
preserve that dry product that is no
problem at all and if you haven't seen
my video on growing dry beans for food
security for your family click on the
video at the top of the screen but if
you want to eat them fresh this is the
stage that you want them in this one's
got a little bit of aphid damage on it
and aphids are attracted to these so be
aware of that but this pale color here
is perfect for shelling the beans out
and eating them raw now I picked one at
an immature stage to show you the color
difference between the two you don't
want to pick these because the
development of the peas or beans on the
inside is not going to be good for
eating when they turn just pale like
this that's the perfect time to pick
them or if you want the dry beans you
can just let them dry in the vine if
you're a little unsure the color when
picking these just look for the Bean
slash P development on the inside so
this one looked a little green to me but
as you can see those peas are already
developed so this one's good to pick
these are really easy to open these are
called zipper cream peas for a reason
there's a little string thing up at the
top on the side and you can just ZIP
down the side and then it it just
basically falls apart for shelling look
at that
super super easy
cool thing about these is you can eat
them fresh
very creamy flavor very good or you can
freeze them like this so we've done that
in the past and we have some friends out
there who gave us some and they freeze
incredibly well just because of their
texture when you unfreeze them
they're perfect still since I'm sitting
out in the garden I'm probably just
going to eat all these
good
so like I said I planted these in late
April and they're a little overdue so
this zipper cream pea is about 65 days
to maturity some of the other varieties
excuse me are a little bit longer and
what I did is I planted them only four
inch at four inch spacing both ways so
four inches on each row and each row is
four inches apart you could extend those
rows out to maybe six to eight inches
but they do like to grow in a confined
space and provide a lot of coverage on
the ground and of course since they're a
legume they do produce their own
nitrogen well that whole process is
complicated but they do help the soil a
lot especially if after they've
completed their growing cycle you clip
them off of the roots and leave the
roots in the soil these don't mine most
soils but this one is a little bit Sandy
and slightly acidic and they thrive in
it the shells on most of the varieties
are inedible so you're not going to be
able to do that it's only the beans
slash p Ease on the inside that are
edible and all these pods are super slim
and they are about six to nine inches
long again dependent on variety so you
can see I've got a lot on the stock here
that are already dried but right next to
it check it out fresh flowers that's the
beautiful thing about these they just
keep going and going and going so in
zone 8B here in Texas these could
probably produce all the way until
December even
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and having full sun exposure on these is
very important so make sure you plant
them in an area where where they are
going to get a lot of sun right now
they're shaded but it's really early in
the morning so I can film this for you
so the sun isn't blasting me in the face
so as I start to harvest these I can
show you how they grow this is one of
the runners off of the main stock down
there and it's about three feet long and
it's got the beans on it and some of
these are ready to harvest but that main
stock down there will start to put out
all of these different runners in
different directions and that gets you
that great coverage on the ground so I'm
just going to harvest the ones that are
a little pale like that and then the
dried ones also the only thing that's a
little challenging about this is trying
not to knock off the newly formed
flowers
on some of them like this one right here
has a flower right next to two dried
ones so I gotta pee super gentle with it
ah there goes the flower it's very
difficult to do that if you're trying to
grow a really high protein crop for your
family these are the way to go
especially down here not sure how well
they do up in the north I've never grown
them up in the north like when I lived
in Michigan
but down here this is almost just a
staple you've got to grow these things
so these grow really well together with
melons I've got melons growing on that
side but they've also come through to
this side through the cow Pea Patch and
they're kind of surrounding each other
and really shading things out on the
ground which is great for those weeds
and then down here which is really
interesting I've got these are a
different Bean this is an asparagus bean
from last year it's a volunteer and this
is a Vining Bean a pole bean and they
are coming up in this area and kind of
attaching themselves and running up the
thicker stalks of the cow peas you can
see these long beans this is a Chinese
asparagus bean I can't remember the
variety but it's about two or three
times longer than the cow peas and just
completely different you can eat the pot
on these of course I hope you've enjoyed
this morning with us here in the garden
and learning a little bit more about
these very beautifully heat tolerant
plants now go click on this video right
here which is our video on pruning
cucumbers for Max production have a
beautiful blessed day we'll see you next
time bye
foreign
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