Beans

Garden Clippings for May 22, 2021

It is a North American luxury to eat green beans all year round.  They first appeared in the grocery store produce aisle a few years ago.  Nice looking green beans all the same length, dark green, perfectly  wrapped and sealed in plastic.  And at $3.99 the pretty green beans were not a bad price.

But they were grown in Guatemala.

More than once, these green beans have landed up in my grocery buggy.  They cook up wonderfully and look prettier than my fresh home-grown green beans.  As for taste, I would rank them only slightly higher than Green Giant tin can green beans.  Given that they can be bought in January, I suppose I ought not complain about fresh cut green beans.

I do not want to think about the living conditions of the staff who plant, pick, wash, package and see to it that us folks near Toronto can enjoy fresh beans.  I do not know what they were sprayed with in order to have them all grown so uniformly.  And I don’t know how long they were on the truck.

Green beans are a cinch to grow.  Give them a sunny hot location and they will grow from seed to maturity in just 2 short months.  Their taste, when fresh picked, is miles above what can be bought from a tin can or driven through Mexico and diagonally across USA.

Growing up, we ate a ton of green beans.  They were planted in the garden at the end of May, and we picked them in the last week of July, just before the Civic Holiday weekend.  Mom would blanch them for a few minutes, bag them, and put them in the deep freeze to be eaten all winter long.  Their taste, even after being frozen, was not to be beat.

Tendergreen is the most popular green been variety and grows abundantly on a compact bush.  Slenderette and Romano are close seconds.  Golden Butterwax and Pencil Pod Black Wax are the yellow equivalent.

Plant beans in June once soil has warmed up.  Beans do not have fussy soil requirements but will not produce well if soil is poorly drained.  Plant bean seeds about half inch into the soil and water after planting.  They will sprout within a week.

Unless you want all the beans harvested in one fell swoop, plant new seeds every two weeks until the end of July.  Do not plant seeds before the end of May because they will not sprout until soil warms up.  Harvest time is critical, because beans taste best when first mature, but their taste and texture deteriorates rapidly if left on the vine too long.

For interest’s sake, try a few rows of specialty beans.  Rattlesnake has green flesh dotted with burgundy stripes.  Royal Burgundy has purplish flesh turning dark green when cooked.  French Horticulture changes in colour from green to red with yellow streaks.  Yard Long is slender and grows long enough to be tied into knots.

Pole Beans are the beans of choice for old time gardeners.  They will need support with strings and stakes but take up less space.  Kentucky Wonder is the leader in pole type beans.