In article ,
WaltA wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
mature
beans,
snip,
and they
require extensive cooking to make them palatable.

I think that you have never tasted a fresh mature bean seed straight
off the plant in late summer/early autumn !

Yes, I have. Runner, French and broad. In all cases, they are
hard (though not like dried ones) and taste strongly 'starchy',
which few people like. While they need less cooking to eliminate
those characteristics than dried ones do, it is still 10-15 minutes
of boiling (rather than the 30-45 minutes for even soaked dried
beans).

Are you sure that you are not confusing fully swollen beans with
mature ones? There is a considerable difference.

What I don't know is whether the swollen but immature beans contain
much of the toxin. It is very possible that it develops with full
maturity - or it is possible that it develops earlier.

I think you are still in that time warp when you discovered the
hessian sack of dried beans in the back of the covered waggon that
your granpappy had just driven across the high plains on his way to
the gold fields of California

How did you guess his occupation? :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.