My green beans started off SO well, beautiful little buds that promised to turn into a plethora of beans that I had earmarked for a tasty Green Beans + Pork Mince dinner. The beans were dripping off the plants like tears, ripe for the picking...
...and then the caterpillars moved in. At first they were chomping on the leaves - which is fine really as I don't want to eat the leaves. I'd still pick the caterpillars off though and toss them (gently) off the balcony to the lawn below.
I don't know if they were climbing back up to our second floor apartment to seek their revenge on me, or if their reinforcements were already laying in wait in the mint bush - but it wasn't long before those darn little green caterpillars from hell stared to eat MY beans! MY BEANS!
Panicked that I'd miss out on my long awaited (homegrown) Green Beans + Pork I harvested ALL my beans...which only gave me about 100 grams. So, it was off to the store to buy another 400 grams for dinner.
The free-range pork for this recipe came from Pete's sister-in-laws
farm - Foxground, was sent to the Wollondilly abattoir (which has a very
good reputation for treating their livestock well before/during processing) and then butchered for us at the wonderful ethical butcher, Feather and Bone. I
can even tell you the pigs name - P1, he was 73kgs and liked milk (and raiding vegetable patches - you can see him here). P1 is the furthest thing from a factory farmed meat experience
that I've had in a VERY long time...and I'm so grateful to everyone involved as they've allowed this city-slicker to have a direct connection with the meat she's eating...and thanks P1.
Ta-da! There we have it - (mostly) balcony-grown Green Beans + Pork. Massive thanks also to the lovely Shez from One Bite More who sent me her super easy recipe. Bloggers are always so generous in sharing their recipes. I did receive quite a few different recipes from bloggers (thanks Julie, Mary and YYGAL) but Shez's was the most simple for this tragic cook!
You can view more Harvest Monday posts on Daphne's Dandelions blog.
