Pick your own Green Beans

Farmer John sent out an email this last week to his shareholders and told us that they had an over abundance of green beans and were offering to let shareholders and their friends and family come out and either buy some picked green beans or pick your own. It sounded like a fun thing to do with the kids!

I was talking to Brenna on Friday and I said, "Farmer John emailed me and said they have too many green beans and they need help to pick them!" Brenna got really excited and said, "oh mama, Gavin and I could help him pick green beans!" It was really sweet!

We went out Saturday afternoon. It was a lovely day, but very windy!

Farmer John told us that we could nibble while we worked. I don't think Gavin or Brenna had ever eaten fresh green beans. So I was curious as to what they would think.

Gavin LOVED the green beans!

Brenna taking a bite....

I will just say, Brenna was NOT a fan of the fresh green bean! That did not deter her from green bean picking!



Gavin eating green beans.

Our bucket for picking...


Gavin picking green beans. John took the kids down the row and showed them how to look for the green beans, how to know when they are ready and how to pick them. The kids did a great job!


Gavin eating a green bean...


Brenna picking


Gavin eating


There were LOTS of green beans!


Do you see the trend here?






Brenna with our bucket of green beans. Yes, she wore a fancy dress and pink boots!




Farmer John and the kids weighing the green beans. We got about 1.5 lbs of green beans. John suggested that I could freeze the green beanss which I hadn't thought of. He said to blanch them first.


There was a large container full of pawpaws! John let us take a couple more.



Seeing the pawpaws reminded Gavin that he wanted to talk to Farmer John about how he could learn to grow some. When we read about pawpaws, we learned that they usually grow close to creeks. We have a creek and two ponds close to us, so Gavin thought he might be able to grow some. Farmer John and Gavin had a conversation about how they grow and what Gavin might need to do to plant some.


Brenna loved the two cats. And they loved her! She was giving them lots of attention. They were very nice cats and even let her attempt to pick them up later!


Before we left, Farmer John took Gavin over to the purple green bean patch and let him pick some of those.


The green beans that we picked are so nice looking and I can't wait to eat some! They are leaps and bounds nicer than any store green beans. And it was so great for the kids to get to take part in something like this. Actually see where green beans come from!

And of course, Gavin has a new favorite food! I ended up paying John more than what we owed because as I told him, "I think Gavin ate his weight in green beans out there!" Gavin gets to take a snack to school and he has decided that these would be the perfect school snack.