Harvest continues here at the farm and we just enjoyed our first batch of cranberry beans. The mother of a good friend gave us these beans to grow and we are glad she did. Not only are they beautiful, but the cranberry beans have great texture and a flavor with a hint of chestnuts. We picked the beans, dried them, shelled them and soaked them, so they did require more work than some of our crops. We made a cranberry bean purée with a bit of sage, potato, béchamel, olive oil and parmesan cheese, and it was a great dish (recipe soon). Well worth the effort.
Otherwise, the season winds down, but we still have some pleasant surprises. The melons are very tasty and the tomatoes are still ripe and sweet. We have a few days of heat coming so another good batch of tomatoes is likely. The strawberries thrive and the peppers move to red (and even hotter, if possible). A nice batch of potatoes is a bonus.
In the orchard, the figs are pretty, but somewhat lacking in flavor, we will see what the heat does. And we wait for the Comice pears to ripen. They are close, but when the pears are ready, then so is winter. We can wait a little longer….
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Putney Farm 
Reblogged this on 8B Agriculture.
Beautiful, as always!
Many Thanks!
mmm, those tomatoes look sensational!! and those itty bitty potatoes?! i LOVE those things!!!! yum yum. how exciting.
Thanks! The marble potatoes are awesome- we just steam them with butter, salt and herbs…so good..
Those cranberry beans are cool!
Thanks- and very tasty…worth growing and or buying if you can…
I look forward to that cranberry bean puree! It sounds very interesting. We eat a lot of beans. My grandmother was raised in the rural south and was very economical in the kitchen! I don’t think we ever entered her home without finding some beans simmering on the stove. I grew up to love them and never grow tired of eating them. New recipes are a delight! D
We will post the recipe soon- need to make it one more time. It is a standard bean recipe (soak and simmer with herbs) but the puree and the bechamel, while extra work, really to amp flavor and give a lighter texture…
Cranberry beans! I’ve never heard of them. Do they actually have any relevance to cranberries?
Nope, we assume it is just the color…but not really sure.. here is a quick info link:
http://www.cranberrybeans.net/
Beautiful, healthy and tempting. Figs is my favorite fruit – but so expensive over here … fig and strawberries on the same time ??? Thought the strawberry season was over – amazing photos .. as always. The beans are beautiful as quail eggs. Stunning post again. Thank you so much.
Thanks! In northern california we can grow strawberries all year, there are a number of colder-weather varieties. We have them april to november, and they are still pretty good…
Okay, didn’t know that … we can get green house strawberries from Holland and Spain, but they don’t taste anything. Learned something new today.
I don’t know how you find the time for all this!?! Do you ever sleep? Stunning as always
Thanks! We sleep fine (we get by on forced labor from the kids … 😉
I am an ACF certified Chef, since 2007. (Although I’ve worked in industry for 16 years now…) I am a new reader to your blog and I’m enjoying your posts very much. Your pictures are beautiful and your words are descriptive. As a Chef, I love to buy locally grown produce and herbs, as well as visit local dairy farms for artisan cheeses. I admire the hard work you put into your crops and can almost taste the freshness of the fruits and vegetables pictured above. Thank you for sharing.. I look forward to more..
~Jen
Thanks for the visit and the kind words- they do mean a lot and we deeply appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Growing our own produce and buying locally made our cooking better- to the point that we decided to share. The inspiration really does come from such good ingredients…
Incredible time of year. One thought on the figs… If they aren’t great fresh, maybe drying them? Or you couldn’t go wrong roasting with brown sugar!
Thanks! We will do something to concentrate the flavor- it isn’t bad, just not very strong…
Roasting with brown sugar is a good idea…