edamame soybeans

I decided to grow edamame soybeans this year.  They're a variety you eat fresh; you just steam or boil the pods, add some coarse salt and pop the beans out of their pods.

I planted four bushes in the spring.  The back two are dead or nearly so.  One of the front two is about three times the size of the other.  This is only because of the different amount of sun this bed gets.  There are high fences on the west and north so only that corner gets any amount of sun.

They struck me as pretty delicate plants.  I had to stake them because the wind was whipping them over and almost snapped one.  They kept getting nibbled by bugs.  I hardly ever watered them, wondering if it was worth it.  But then one day realised they were blooming!

I don't have a photo of the flower but they're like absolutely tiny pink pea blossoms.  So tiny I thought they'd died when I saw them shrivel - surely they were meant to get bigger before turning into beans!  But no, they're just tiny, and now the big plant is covered with fuzzy bean pods.

I thought the smaller plant was a complete write-off but it turns out it also has beans.  It doesn't have very many but they're actually the largest pods so far.  I'm not 100% sure when to pick them, they're almost as big as the ones I've had before but still quite thin.

Won't be long before I'm tasting!