Beans

We grow several varieties of beans known as fresh snap bush beans. They range in color from bright green to deep and vivid purple to clean and crisp pale yellow. They will be in your share July through September bursting with flavor and color.

Cooking Tips

Perhaps the tastiest, and certainly the simplest, way to enjoy beans is just to snack on them raw. Raw is certainly the best way to eat the Dragon Tongue beans if you want them to maintain their beautiful purple color. For boiling or steaming beans, give them about 5-8 minutes or until they turn a slightly darker shade but don't get mushy. Beans preserve their nutrients better in cooking if they are not cut. They can also be very nice sautéed with some corn, tomatoes, onion and parsley in a fricassee. Whatever recipe you decide to use your fresh beans in, just be careful not to overcook them.

Storage Tips

It is best to store beans in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator, not washing them until before you are going to use them. Try to use beans as soon as possible to really enjoy their fresh snap, but they should keep well for about a week. If you want to preserve some beans for later on, it is very easy. Just blanch them in boiling water for about two minutes, cool in an ice bath and put them in an air-free freezer bag.

Nutrition

Fresh beans have large amounts of vitamins, calcium, and potassium, and quite a bit of vegetable protein, although not as much as their dried counterparts.

History

Beans have been a central crop for the people native to the Americas for over 7,000 years; so important that in several cultures dried beans were used as a form of currency as well as food. They are believed to have originated in Mexico and Central America, but were also cultivated in South America in the Andes and by many cultures in what is now the United States. In the American Southwest pole beans were one of the Three Sisters, along with corn and squash, that were the staples of desert farmers. These fresh beans are actually botanically very similar to dried beans, the only difference being that these varieties are selected to be picked before the beans grow large and dry out.

Field Notes

We plant beans several times throughout the spring so that they will be available in successive weeks for harvest. Unlike most of the other crops, beans need no extra nitrogen added to the soil before they are planted, as their roots naturally foster a beneficial fungus that "fixes" (or makes available) usable nitrogen for them; one of nature's little magic tricks. Once the plants have flowered and fruited, the real challenge arrives. Picking beans is a time intensive job, as anyone who has done it can attest. Sitting on buckets, we comb through tangled plants for beans that are ready to be eaten.