We Have Beans!

This spring I planted some pole beans next to the deck in hopes that the plants would wind their way up the deck sides providing for an easy way to harvest the beans. The plants would also serve as a privacy barrier on the deck. I chose a variety called Kentucky Wonder, which is stringless and has brown seeds. I normally opt for bush beans but I wanted to see how my idea for pole beans would turn out. As the season progressed, extremely high temperatures and a draught assaulted Missouri. I watered my beans faithfully for about a month but the high temperatures made it hard for me to continue in my faithful efforts. 

Now that those high temperatures have passed and we have had a few rain showers so I have been planning my fall preparations for my herb beds. I figured I would just be tearing out the beans in an “oh well, better luck next year” frame of mind. Much to my surprise today, I found loads of nice looking green beans on my plants. The foliage is dying back which makes it so much easier to see the bounty these plants have produced to spite the harsh temperatures and lack of water. They aren’t the most glamorous of beans but they are beans :-)

 I steamed a batch this evening and ate them plain. They were delicious. However, their being stringless did not happen. Tomorrow I will remove the strings and use a nice Greek recipe I found in my Traditional Greek Cooking book that was given to me by my good friend John. It sounds awesome, however I did change the recipe a bit. I’ll use;

A couple of pounds of beans

½  cup of olive oil

1 pound of tomatoes

1 TBSP tomato paste

a few shallots

2 TBSP chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste.

After rinsing and trimming the beans sauté the onions, combine strained tomatoes and tomato paste diluted in 2 cups of water. Bring this to a boil then add the beans. Simmer until all of the liquid is gone and only the oil remains as a sauce. 

It’s nice to try new things and I really like the flavor of these pole beans so next year I will give them a place in my new garden. So, the spot I used for these beans this year will once again be used for my herbs.