This one plant can produce a year's worth of vegetables — here's how.
The scoop
Want to enjoy legumes for the rest of your life? Just plant this Puerto Rican pole bean in your garden. TikToker and gardener Homegrown Florida (@homegrownflorida) shared how she harvested a year's worth of crop from a single plant.
"[This] is a Puerto Rican black bean," she says. "So the way that these grow is you start with this vining plant – this is just one plant, it gets very large, it gets very big – and it produces a crazy amount of beans."
@homegrownflorida This plant gave me a year's worth of beans. I shelled the pods, spread them out to finish drying, then stored them in jars. Feeling ready for anything. #homeharvest #seedstorage #growyourownfood #backyardgarden #creatorsearchinsights ♬ original sound - Homegrown Florida
The Puerto Rican black bean is a type of climbing bean — they'll need trellises to support their long, vining growth. With plenty of sunlight and well-draining soil, the plant will produce a ton of black beans.
Once the pods become yellow and crisp, the beans can be harvested, dried, and stored in an airtight container. Then, "these [beans] will keep like this for years," she says.
Black beans can be used in a ton of recipes, from soups and salsa to burritos and burgers.
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How it's helping
Growing your own food is a fun way to save money, especially on easy-to-grow food like herbs, beans, tomatoes, and leafy greens.
Not only is home-grown food delicious, but it can be good for your health, too. Since food can be picked when perfectly ripe, home-grown, organic produce can be more nutritious than store-bought counterparts.
Black beans can help lower cholesterol, and plant-based diets can reduce the risk of cancer.
Even the act of gardening itself is good for you. Gardening is a form of exercise, and people who regularly garden are happier, healthier, and at lower risk for certain diseases.
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Not enough time ⏳ What everyone's saying
Gardeners in the comments shared what plants they've grown plenty of.
"Garlic was our first plant of self-sufficiency; we haven't bought garlic in 11 years," one user said.
"Tomatoes and herbs have always been my yrs worth every year," another gardener shared. "Last year I harvested about 300 lbs of tomatoes. And canned about 200 lbs."
"That's amazing that is one plant!! I may have to try them," a third commenter wrote
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