2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Vegetables play a leading role in human nutrition. They serve as important sources of minerals and vitamins, and the legume family is rich in complete proteins. In recent years, the attention of gardeners has been attracted by the cowpea asparagus, which is used as a dietary product in an unripe form. Few also know about the healing effects of this culture
Exotic cowpea is also called "black eye", "cow peas", "vegetable meat", Latin America and Africa are considered its homeland. Asparagus beans are especially common and popular in China, Korea and Japan. In Chinese, asparagus cowpea sounds like "gondu" and means that the young leaves of the seeded bean are fibrous and tender.
Vigna looks like the usual beans, but its fruits reach sizes up to 50 - 100 cm and have excellent taste. Vigna is unusually fruitful, contains a large amount of proteins, pectins. For Russian conditions, the most suitable varieties of asparagus beans are Yunnan and Siberian sizes.
Raising cowpea
Vigna is a rather unpretentious plant with a high yield. This climbing culture with white - purple flowers reaches a height of up to five meters, its shoulder blades are up to a meter in length, the yield of cowpea is up to 3 kg of seeds from one plant. Vigna bears fruit well in both alkaline and acidic soils, tolerates heat and shade.
Comparing cowpea with ordinary beans, you can notice some of the cultivation features. This is a heat-loving plant, the seeds are sown only in warm and moist soil to a depth of 4 - 6 cm. Young plants are very sensitive to the slightest frost and even a short drop in temperature.
Before planting seeds in open ground, soak cowpea seeds for 30 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate, rinse with water. When sowing, keep the distance between the rows, the distance should be about 80 cm, between the shoots - 70 cm. For the inhabitants of Russia of a temperate climate, it is advisable to grow cowpea through seedlings. Do not sow cowpea in the same place every year, make a crop rotation, in the same place, asparagus beans can be planted no earlier than after 3 to 4 years. Excellent predecessors for cowpea are garden representatives of the nightshade family, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes.
Exotic beans need support, so plant them next to tall-stemmed crops or set up trellises. Care consists in regular weeding, loosening and watering after the first ovaries appear. In the spring, enrich the soil with mineral fertilizers, in the autumn, add organic substances to the bed under the cowpea.
Start harvesting cowpea at the stage of "milky ripeness", when cowpea blades are no more than 50 cm long, and the seeds are similar in size to a grain of wheat. After the growing season (110-12 days), already ripe beans are removed when the pods are dry.
If you want to leave cowpea beans for seeds, then dry them, pack them in fabric bags, putting a couple of dry bay leaves there.
Advantages of cowpea
Cowpea beans in terms of protein content - albumin are close to fish or meat, while being a valuable dietary product. Asparagus beans are perfectly absorbed by the human body, obtaining the necessary amino acids that are absent in animal products. A high content of carbohydrates, fats, organic acids, trace elements and other biologically active substances is found in unripe beans, therefore regular consumption of cowpea regulates the level of hemoglobin in the blood. They eat not only beans, but also juicy valves, which do not have a coarse parchment layer. Calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, iodine are present as minerals in cowpea.
Along with the nutritional value, cowpea is grown for its attractive decorative appearance. This climbing plant with purple flowers will decorate any gazebo, veranda or fence.
Application of cowpea
Vigna is a treasure of vitamins, but it undeservedly occupies a low place in the diet of both rural and urban residents. This amazing vegetable can be used to prepare nutritious salads, various dishes and canned food for future use. The use of cowpea in food is recommended for diabetes, obesity, diseases of the stomach, liver, pancreas, eczema, anemia, gout.
In order for the cowpea harvest to please you for a whole year, the cowpea blades can be successfully frozen, and then added to stews, soups. Just before freezing, boil the cowpea pods in boiling water for a couple of minutes.
Do not eat green cowpea beans raw, they contain toxic substances that are instantly destroyed as a result of heat treatment.
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Beans
© Kasia Bialasiewicz / Rusmediabank.ru Latin name: Vicia faba Family: Legumes Categories: Vegetable crops Beans (lat.Vicia faba) - legumes; an annual belonging to the legume family. Homeland is the Mediterranean. Description The pods are represented by plants with erect, highly branched, non-lying stems up to 1 m high with pronounced edges.
Green Beans
Green beans - a climbing or bush plant native to Central and South America. This culture is often called asparagus beans. History Green beans have been known to mankind since time immemorial. This culture was especially appreciated by the ancient Romans, who ate beans not only for food, but also widely used it for cosmetic purposes - they made a decorative powder from this valuable product, which has a softening effect and smoothing wrinkles.
Adzuki Beans
Adzuki beans (Latin Vigna angularis) - a culture belonging to the legume family, which has a huge number of other names: "pall", "phat", "chawali", "pinyi", etc. Description Adzuki beans are a wonderful herbaceous annual.
White Beans
White beans (lat.Phaseolus) Is a cultivated plant belonging to the Legumes family. Description Oval white beans are characterized by a slightly flattened shape, but they are always located in pods in several pieces. For the first time, this culture was discovered for themselves by numerous residents of Latin America and India.
Red Beans
Red beans (lat.Phaseolus) Is a popular legume crop. Description The bivalve pods of red beans contain oval grains that are flattened on both sides. For the first time, this variety of beans was discovered by the inhabitants of India, as well as Central and South America.
