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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 2018)
2B ܂ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 ܂ APPEAL TRIBUNE How to save beans for next year’s garden Gardening Carol Savonen Guest columnist Question: Dear Carol, I was cleaning up my vegetable garden and realized that I had left some of my favorite pole beans still on the vines. They are now hard and mature but still in the shell. Can I save these and plant them next year? Any hints on how to do this are ap preciated. Answer: You are lucky, as beans are one of the easiest seeds to save. They self pollinate before the flowers open, so they can’t cross with other beans. Pole beans are old fashioned and are not usually hybrids, so the plant grown from seeds will resemble the parents. So yes, you can save them. First, check to see if your beans are mature and dry enough to store away for the winter, shake the pods. The beans should rattle in the pod if they are dry and mature. Then, shell a pod and pound a bean with a hammer. If it shatters, it is dry enough to store away. If it squishes in stead, it is too immature to plant in the Beans are easy to save for next year’s garden. CAROL SAVONEN/ SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL garden next spring. Choose only plump, unblemished bean seeds to save. If they don’t look filled out or have moldy spots, they will not grow into healthy bean vines next year. Keep your mature, dry shelled beans in an envelope or paper sack and dry them indoors in a dark place for a couple of weeks. Plastic bags are not good for storing seeds, as they tend to encourage seed rot. Once dry, your bean seeds should be put in the freezer for three days to de stroy any seed munching bean weevil larvae they might contain. Bean seeds are rather large and fleshy compared with the tinier seeds of other vegetable families such as carrots, lettuce or to matoes. Their relative voluptuousness makes bean and pea seeds tempting to the weevils, whose larvae munch their way out of the seed and later emerge as adult beetles. Adult weevils lay their eggs in the bean flower or inside growing young pods. Larval bean weevils hatch out and eat their way out of the seeds. You may have noticed holes in stored bean and pea seed. This is a sign that weevils have killed your seed. To kill bean weevil eggs before they hatch and devour their way out of your saved seeds, simply put your dried bean seed in the freezer for three days. Once dried and freezertreated, store your seed beans as recommended below. All veggie seeds, including bean seeds, are best saved in paper envelopes a cool dry place, such as in a glass jar in the refrigerator or cold closet indoors; somewhere near the floor is coolest. It is good to add some sort of desic cant to keep the seeds dry over time. You can buy silicagel desiccant and add a layer on the bottom of each con tainer you store seeds in. The gel will ab sorb moisture from the air inside the container and help keep the seeds dry. Craft supply stores sell silica gel in bulk for drying flowers. Instant powdered milk also works well as a desiccant. Use one to two ta blespoons of milk powder from a freshly opened package per jar. To keep it tidy, you can wrap the powdered milk in a piece of cheesecloth or a facial tissue first, then put it in the jar. Powdered milk will absorb excess moisture from the air for about six months. Don’t forget to label your saved seeds with their variety name, and the date and year you collected them. For best re sults, use your saved seed within a year. Older seeds often fail to produce robust bean vines. Check the seed for weevil holes be fore planting. Teaching children the benefits of giving back Laura Dillon Oregon Connections Academy Sparkling lights everywhere, festive music and food, family, friends, and no school! It’s a wonderful time of year, es pecially for children. However, the holi days can often be challenging for par ents, when children want the latest video game, or plead for the newest fur ry robot pet. As parents, if we can instill a sense of gratitude, kindness, and generosity in children, we may see less of that “gimmegimme” attitude and more about giving back. As an educator, I look for those “teachable moments” in everyday life – and what better way to encourage giving back than during the season of giving? I remember when my kids were younger we would take a tag off of the giving tree at church or the local mall and would collect toys and gifts for the child and family. Focusing on others and their needs helped my children develop empathy, compassion and a giving spirit towards mankind. Volunteering is a good way for chil dren to learn about gratitude, to do something positive for the community, and appreciate what they have com pared to those less fortunate. Helping those in need allows children to experience empathy firsthand and re ceive many other benefits. Students learn valuable life skills when they vol unteer, including teamwork, communi cation, responsibility, time manage Horowitz Continued from Page 1B “I’m proud of the way these guys came out every week and put every thing they had on the line.” So where do the Beavers go from here? OSU’s quest to become relevant again in the Pac12 ultimately will come down to recruiting. The Beavers have verbal commitments from five of the Children catch on quickly, so even young kids can give back. Start small While we count our blessings this time of year, the need continues year round, and giving should as well. If we encourage students to maintain their volunteer activities on a regular basis, hopefully giving back won’t just be an annual occurrence. Here are a few easy ways to turn the season of giving volunteering into year round activities: ܂ Bring books to read with resi- dents at local retirement homes. Sen ior citizens love to have children visit re gardless of the occasion. ܂ Write letters or assemble care packages for military personnel. Local military and recruitment centers can assist in sending gifts to service men and women on deployment. Veterans organizations are also a good resource. ܂ Contribute to food drives. Kids can pick out items at the grocery store to donate to local food banks. ܂ Bake cookies for emergency re- sponders. Ask children to help bake thankyou cookies and help deliver them to emergency rooms, police and fire stations. Saint Francis of Assisi said it best, “For it is in giving that we receive.” Once students have experienced that warm fuzzy feeling they get from helping oth ers, studies show they’re more likely to continue volunteering into adulthood. This holiday season, give your children the gift of giving and it will reap rewards for a lifetime. Laura Dillon, Oregon Connections Academy Parent Outreach Manager from Eugene For information about Oregon Con nections Academy please visit: www.OregonConnectionsAcade- my.com/Events or call (800) 382–6010. state’s top 10rated recruits according to 247Sports.com. This won’t be a quick fix, something Smith was well aware of when he re turned to his alma mater after spending the previous four years as offensive co ordinator at Washington. “I think we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Smith said. “Just what I knew I was coming into and this staff knew it and these kids know.” There are some positives to build on. Jefferson set an OSU singleseason rushing record for freshmen with 1,380 yards. Sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Hodges led the team with 59 receptions, and junior Trevon Bradford was close behind with 56. Junior safety Jalen Moore, who led the Beavers with 102 tackles, and soph omore linebacker Hamilcar Rashed Jr. (teamhigh 11 1 ⁄ 2 tackles for loss), anchor a defense in need of a major upgrade. The quarterback situation will be in teresting with the likely departure of senior Jake Luton, who could petition the NCAA for another year of eligibility after missing the last eight games of 2017 with a spine injury. Sophomore sig nal callers Conor Blount and Jack Col letto are due back. Smith does not anticipate changes to his coaching staff. “I think the line of scrimmage on the offensive and the defensive side is something we’re gonna continue to build on,” Smith said. Anyone who watched the 122nd edi tion of the Civil War would agree with that assessment. ghorowitz@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/ghorowitz Miller Broodtrout stocking generally starts in early November and continues through Christmas, depending on the availability of trout. Item 2: Lettuce pray: The best time to find out from your significant other about the redflag warning not to eat ro maine lettuce because of an E. coli out break … is definitely not five minutes af ter you’ve eaten a sandwich lavishly garnished with a heaping pile of “Spring Mix.” The first and thus most abundant component of which is “baby romaine.” I’ll let you know how it turns out, but if you don’t hear from me again … One of the ironies of confirming that the warning isn’t bogus is to Google the topic and check the sources. You can’t get more authentic than the federal Centers for Disease Control. The irony comes in with the ads on the righthand side of the search results with the heading “Shop for romaine let tuce” and listing the tastetempting op tions. Yum! See you next week, hopefully. Henry Miller is a retired Statesman Journal outdoor writer and outdoor col- umnist. You can contact him via email at HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com ment, and goal setting. Researchers have found that students who volunteer do better aca demically, and are more likely to graduate high Laura Dillon school. Colleges and em ployers look for commu nity service on resumes, plus it helps students as they explore career options. Young people who volunteer often see health benefits too, ranging from improved selfesteem to fewer highrisk behaviors like drug abuse. Giving guidance Before your children start volunteer ing, talk to them about why it’s impor tant to do good deeds for others. Lead by example and explain the ways you help those less fortunate, and show that giv ing back isn’t always about donating money. Volunteering the family way Start a new holiday tradition this year and adopt a charity that your fam ily can volunteer with on a regular basis. There are many ways the whole family can give back, like pitching in at the lo cal food bank and participating in a charity walk. Random acts of giving Volunteering is a good way for children to learn about gratitude, to do something positive for the community, and appreciate what they have compared to those less fortunate. with random acts of kindness. Your stu dent can create a “Kindness Calendar” marking down acts for each day of the month—such as shoveling snow for an elderly neighbor or calling grandparents to talk about their favorite holiday mem ories. Connecting the cause Your child will feel good about giving if they’re invested in selecting the char ity. Talk about their interests and try to find a volunteer opportunity that matches—perhaps a neighborhood park needs improvements, or they love dogs and want to help the local animal shel ter. Spread giving year-round Continued from Page 1B LOW COST CREMATION & BURIAL Simple Cremation $595 NO Hidden Costs TUALATIN SALEM 8970 SW Tualatin Sherwood Rd 412 Lancaster Drive NE (503) 885-7800 (503) 581-6265 TIGARD PORTLAND 832 NE Broadway 12995 SW Pacifi c Hwy (503) 783-3393 (503) 783-6869 MILWAUKIE EASTSIDE 17064 SE McLoughlin Blvd 1433 SE 122nd Ave (503) 783-6865 (503) 653-7076 Privately owned cremation facility. A Family Owned Oregon Business. OR-GCI0087893-06 www.ANewTradition.com brooders to go out. I’ve been chasing Neal Rash’s hatch ery runs for stories and pictures for about three decades, since right after I got here, and about the same time that he started driving the stocking trucks. Apparently, I’m not the only one. “Oh, yeah, occasionally,” Neal said when I asked if anglers follow the trucks. He smiled. “Sometimes when we’re empty,” Rash said. “Whether we’re loaded or not.” But most longtime anglers who track the stocking schedules have a pretty good bead on when the trucks will be making deliveries. “If they know we’re going to be there, they’re waiting for us.” Most of the heavy stocking the past week was to provide opportunities for anglers during the free fishing days Nov. 23 and 24, when no license or tags are required to fish, crab and clam in Ore gon. Stocking with continue sporadically throughout the winter.