So if you use them as shell beans, at what point should you harvest them?

--
Jacqueline, another first-time veggie gardener
Carmichaels PA
"Pat Kiewicz" wrote in message
...
DigitalVinyl said:

This may seem a silly question...

I let a bunch of green beans-normally harvested as long pods for cut
green beans turn into actually hard beans. Now they are the kind you
would soak and boil to eat. But are the beanbeans of a green beans
normally eaten under a different name? (Lima, kidney[not], etc)

Lima beans and 'green beans' are two different species. But 'green beans'
are the same species as kidney beans and many other types grown to eat
the seeds rather than the immature pods. You probably could eat the young
pods of a kidney bean, but as that variety hasn't been selected for
tender,
stringless pods, it might not be pleasant eating.

Green beans that get away from you can be harvested at the fresh shell
stage
or allowed to form a dry bean. Since hybrid green beans are almost
unheard
of, and green beans almost always self-pollinate, you can use those dry
beans
to plant next year's crop if you don't eat them in bean soup. (Lima beans
are
insect pollinated and WILL cross between varieties. Which can get
interesting.)

Lima or butter beans = Phaseolus lunatus
Kidney, pintos, great northern, black beans, wax beans, green snap beans =
Phaseolus vulgarus

And to throw some more info, black-eyed peas and yardlong beans are two
separate species in another genus entirely (Vigna).
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

"Jacqueline" wrote:

So if you use them as shell beans, at what point should you harvest them?

Full-sized in the pod, but not yet starting to dry out.
Only need a brief steaming and a little butter.

Yum!


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~gwoods
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G