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I don't know what these beans are called. I called them a French Shell Bean. A quick internet photo search came up with one listing for "Tongue of Fire" beans. I bought some at the grocery store last fall as a fresh shelling bean. We enjoyed them so I set a few pods aside and dried them to plant this spring. We got another meal out of them and I've set aside a few more for next year. I found that they are best harvested when the pod is pink and white, then the beans inside are more mature. The pods that had more green, had pale green beans. They all turned white when we cooked them with some tomatoes. They were lovely and tender.
These are Scarlet Runner Beans. When I planted them I don't remember noticing that the beans were purple and black. I think they will fade as they dry. It was a wonderful surprise to open the first brown pod and find lovely lavender and black beans. There will be more of these soon.Here's an article about cooking shell beans. It makes me think that maybe I should cook seed and cook my pole beans that have gotten too tough to eat as green beans.
This week I harvested my first and only eggplant. The plants are just starting to bloom again.
The zucchini and cucumbers slowed down as the dry weather has hit and they have some downy mildew as well. Only 2.6 pounds of zucchini this week and just over a pound of cucumbers.
I dug the rest of my All Blue potatoes ( 5lbs 4 oz) and some Yukon gold as well (2 lbs 5 oz). The rest of the Yukon gold will stay in the ground until we need them or later this fall.
The cherry tomatoes continue to increase in production with almost 3 pounds of them this week. I made fresh salsa with some of them and the tomatillos (3 oz). I also got my first red zebra tomato, which isn't any larger than the cherry tomatoes. It also had blossom end rot at the bottom. :(
We enjoyed some nice large carrots. They were short but thick,and very good.
Here is arugula, slicing cucumbers, carrots, basil, tomatillos and cherry tomatoes.
I picked over a pound of chard, some leeks, dragon tongue and romano beans, a green zebra tomato, zucchini, tomatillos, and cherry tomatoes.
Total this week: 19.36 pounds
Total this year: 116.75 pounds
You can see other gardeners' harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.
Lately our dinners have been relying heavily on the garden. Last night we had Swiss-Chard Zucchini Soup which used onions, chard, zucchini, potatoes, and cilantro from the garden. We base it on this recipe, but use the chard in place of spinach, add lemon thyme from the herb garden, add crushed red pepper and serve it with cheddar cheese. Above is the harvest that went into the soup, with some of the potatoes you'll see below. The tomatoes made it into another meal.
Tonight we enjoyed Oven Potatoes on the Grill. We love potatoes with our burgers, but I didn't want to heat up the kitchen with a hot oven. So instead, I used up the small potatoes, or cut others into chunks.
I used our first All-Blue potatoes, with the last of our Irish Cobblers. I tossed them in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme before skewering them. It made skewering a little slippery but it made the coverage of the oil more even. Here they are going on the grill.
We cooked them on the grill over medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally. They were nice and brown on the outside and tender all the way through when finished. 
They were delicious. Looking back to find the link for the recipe I make in the oven I realized we could have put beet sections on here too and those would have been good also. Next time!
We also had Romano beans stewed with cherry tomatoes, onions and basil. I sauteed the onion and a bit of garlic in a pan, added quartered tomatoes, and the beans, half the basil and just a bit of water. Covered, they simmered for 5 to 10 minutes until they were tender. I added a half teaspoon of sugar to cut the acidity and topped with more fresh basil.
We're looking forward to even more garden dinners.
I don't know what these beans are called. I called them a French Shell Bean. A quick internet photo search came up with one listing for "Tongue of Fire" beans. I bought some at the grocery store last fall as a fresh shelling bean. We enjoyed them so I set a few pods aside and dried them to plant this spring. We got another meal out of them and I've set aside a few more for next year. I found that they are best harvested when the pod is pink and white, then the beans inside are more mature. The pods that had more green, had pale green beans. They all turned white when we cooked them with some tomatoes. They were lovely and tender.
These are Scarlet Runner Beans. When I planted them I don't remember noticing that the beans were purple and black. I think they will fade as they dry. It was a wonderful surprise to open the first brown pod and find lovely lavender and black beans. There will be more of these soon.
