Do we need this many green beans?

Last year Anne canned many, many quarts of green beans. We had oodles of them. The thing is, we really don’t care for them canned. We much prefer them frozen. Fresh is even better, but that’s seasonal. As it turns out, we had several dozen quarts we didn’t eat. They’ll keep, of course, but we’re getting bushels of fresh ones from the garden now. So, we gave all that we had left over to some friends to whom they are a great blessing. We’re freezing ones from this summer.

Right now, Ramiah and Malchiah are snapping green beans, and Anne just put a few quarts in the freezer. I picked a bushel and a half a week ago. They needed picked again the end of last week, but my back still hurt from the previous picking. My dad was kind enough to pick. He spent two or three hours picking on Friday, but stopped when he’d filled all three five-gallon buckets he had. There’s still another quarter of the beans to be picked, and they don’t want to stop producing.

Earlier, when Dad and I talked about what to grow in the garden this year, we figured we didn’t need too many green beans. Mom and Anne were considering preserving many since we had so much left over. Dad planted two 50 foot long double rows using beans I saved for seed from last years crop. What was he thinking? We’ve picked five or six bushels off of them so far, and they are threatening to produce another three or four bushels. How many do we need?

When planting a garden, it’s hard not to plant the seeds you have and set the plants you have in the space available. But, that’s not always a good idea. You can be overwhelmed by the produce. I find it hard to not pick it when it needs picked, even if we don’t need it. We give away what we can, but often, other people have an abundance just as we do and don’t want our extra.

We can be thankful, though, for the blessing of abundance. It’s great to have the problem of figuring out what to do with too much food rather than what to do with too little.