protein from the garden?

[sixshooter]

Im starting to dream up what im going to plant this spring...and I would love to be able to get some protein from the garden. I live in Michigan (I forget what zone)...can anyone recommend me anything? Maybe some kind of beans?

[digitS']

I have grown edamame soybeans the last 2 years.

This isn't soybean country and I felt that it was necessary to find a real early-maturing variety. The 1st year, I grew quite a few varieties but in a very short row. This year, I had about 75' of what I thought grew best.

Can't claim to have saved a lot of money since there were too many for me and my wife to eat fresh so most were harvested dry. She has made tofu before so they will go to that. But, you know . . . dry soybeans aren't very expensive. I shoulda, woulda, coulda - froze the fresh edamame. If'n I'd thought of that . . !

I'd never even tried edamame until I was harvesting my own. Realized they taste real good - more like peanuts than kidney beans, IMO.

Anyway, I've grown dry beans before, too. Not so tuff . . . they just require an entire growing season to mature a crop. You may want to sample a good many to find what works best for you. "Soldier" beans grew far and away better than pinto, great northern, or the others I tried that year.

Steve

[cynthia_h]

Legumes + grain = a complete protein. So if you grow legumes and even a small amount of grain (I grew wheat in an approx. 6 x 8 foot patch out by the street in 2008), that will give you a complete protein.

For more information, see Jon Jeavons' site, http://www.bountifulgardens.org , where the author of How to Grow More Vegetables... offers many unusual legumes and grains for planting.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[garden5]

Another option is to contact your local extension service and ask for what types of bean crops they recommend for your area. Here is a neat list of the Protien Content in Beans

[sixshooter]

Awesome. As always you guys are the best!

[!potatoes!]

groundnuts. native perennial tuber, potato-like but with much higher protein content.

many, many options for dry beans, too. in my experience, cowpeas are some of the easiest.

[digitS']

I grew chickpeas and lentils only once, they seem to benefit very little from irrigation. They are small plants and finish their season very early. That could be of value if you want to follow them with another crop.

Field peas have been in my garden a few times. I've been a little frustrated with them . . . and saving garden pea for seed, for that matter. Weevils seem to be very happy to get in them and ruin things for me !

The supposed "Dry Pea and Lentil Capital of the US" is just about 100 miles south of where I live. Quite a few acres of chickpeas are grown around there as well. That is all dry land farming.

Chickpeas may only yield 500 pounds an acre but they can certainly go over 2,000 pounds per acre. Lentils may yield between 1400 pounds to 2,000 pounds per acre. Where they grow pinto beans in Texas, the people there say yield has "ranged between 900 and 2,000 pounds of marketable beans per acre."

All those numbers just go to show that different crops do better in different years, locations, climates, and with different techniques. Now obviously, I don't live in soybean country. Still, I can have quite a bit of fun growing this, that, and the other!

I grow a little wheat in the garden every year but not for eating. Oh, the chickens get a little; the rest is used just for ornamental purposes .

Steve

[jal_ut]

A combination of corn, beans and squash gives you complete protein.

[DeborahL]

James, I didn't know that ! I'm going off white carbs, and I don't eat meat, so this is really a piece of good news for me. I can't do grain+bean= protein. I don't lose any weight like that, and I get weak too.
THANKS !!!

[jal_ut]

The Three Sisters, corn beans and squash.

http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html

[DeborahL]

Thanks ! That's a great website !

[jal_ut]

I have tried this planting, but I spaced the corn 18 inches apart rather than the six inches stated in this paper. I think it will do better with just a little more space.

My conclusions. I think that both the corn and beans do better without being in direct competition for sunlight, water, and nutrients. The beans seemed wimpy. The squash did pretty well, but it was a project to go into the patch and pick beans or corn because the squash was everywhere. Hard to avoid stepping on it. It was a bummer picking beans too because of getting cut by corn leaves.

I will plant corn, beans and squash in their own areas, and rotate each year, rather than try to grow it all in a heap. One of the perks of the three sisters system was that you didn't need a trellis for the beans as they climbed the corn. I will gladly push bean poles to avoid the nasty corn leaves when picking beans.

End of rant!

[jal_ut]

I go up along the river and cut bean poles. They are willow shoots. I plant 2 rows of beans. I poke the willows in the ground about 2 feet apart, and tie 4 together then run one horizontal on top. This has good wind resistance. The beans do very well like this.

[DeborahL]

James, is it true that willow shoots root?

[jal_ut]

Deborah, if you want to start a willow tree or poplar tree, cut some dormant shoots about Thanksgiving time. You only want a piece ten inches long. 1/2 to 3/4 inch diameter shoots work well. Plant it in the ground leaving one or two buds above ground. It will root over winter and grow in the spring. You can start these whare they will grow or plant a whole row of them close together to be later transplanted.

I do not have trouble with the bean poles sprouting. I cut them a couple of weeks before needed and they dry out, basically killing them. Yes, they may sprout if pushed into the ground freshly cut. Usually though they will also leaf out, but the leaves demand too much water and with no, or very little root they don't grow here in this dry country. They will die. By the time the beans need a pole the weather is hot, not conducive to growing willows from cuttings.