Edamame

Every year, we pick out a few new plants to try, something to keep things interesting. Usually, they don’t work. Sweet potatoes were a bust, cabbages got eaten by slugs, and the kiwis are growing beautifully without producing a single piece of fruit. I don’t mind. It’s nice to experiment.

This year, one of our new starts was edamame. For those of you who don’t know, edamame is a type of soybean that is cooked and eaten sort of like peas. Some people eat the pods, others don’t, but they’re delicious when steamed and salted. We like it because it’s an easy protein to throw into a salad or stir fry. Plus my kids would eat straight salt if I let them and this lets me at least have the illusion that it’s healthy.

The variety I ordered grew much like green beans. I was so happy to see that it had worked! Unfortunately, the pods ripened just as the rest of my life was at its most hectic. So, I kept putting off harvesting. And putting it off. And putting it off. Finally, I looked over and the beautiful green pods were brown and dried out. I didn’t even have time to regret it. Just another thing I don’t have time for in September.

But I went away for a girls’ night away with some friends (we didn’t even have time for a weekend - it was maybe 24 hours), and Forrest has an aversion to letting food go to waste, even seemingly dried out edamame. So when I got home the next day and reached for some leftovers to lunch, I found a stir-fry with shelled edamame in it. I looked at him and he smiled. He’d gotten the girls to help him shell them, pulled out the ones that really were too dried to eat, and steamed the rest. They were a little tough, but still delicious.

I am so thankful that he’s willing to go the extra mile to find the good in situations I give up on. If I have one flaw (I know, just one?) it’s that I’m very quick to throw up my hands. If it doesn’t work on the first try, it doesn’t work. Maybe we’ll try again next year, but if it’s not right, there’s nothing to salvage. Forrest, on the other hand, goes the complete opposite direction. Right now he is happily making a woodshed out of some pallets he found by the side of the road and an old dresser that was falling apart.

As you can imagine, sometimes that can lead to disagreements. I look at a burned cake and want to throw it out. He pulls out a knife to cut off the bad parts. I want to trash a leaky hose, and he’s out there with plumber’s tape. I both love and hate it. And I think he enjoys that there are moments where I put my foot down and refuse, allowing him the indulgence of - gasp!- buying something new and pristine.

We’re definitely growing edamame next year, and with luck, our growing season will be more normal so I can harvest it in August when I’ve got more time on my hands. Besides, I’ve got no choice. Yesterday, I was sorting through our surplus seed packets and I found a little container. I recognized it as one that had originally held ketchup from our favorite take out place, carefully washed for reuse by Forrest. Inside, a couple dozen dry edamame seeds filled the container. And on top? It had been labeled, very carefully, in my daughter’s handwriting.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. And I could not be happier about it.

Serenity DillawayComment