ERIN EARLES | From Garden To Table | Green beans can be cooked any which way
Email | Print Erin Earles | Anacortes American
June 06, 2008 - 08:12 PM

I asked my dad recently, while on our way to lunch, what his favorite vegetable was. He thought for a moment and then replied, “green beans.” It’s not quite the season to pick green beans and mine are up only a few inches right now, but in honor of Father’s Day I will write about the versatile green bean that’s uses far outshine the Thanksgiving green been casserole.

Not much of a vegetable man in general, my dad does love to fish for salmon on the Skagit River. On many a summer weekend, I remember eating barbecued salmon, garlic bread with real garlic and butter and potato salad, but I don’t remember any vegetables.

Nowadays, when the garden is going full swing, we make vegetables an equal part of the meal, grilling anything that won’t fall through the grates of the barbecue — including green beans.

Blue Lake is my tried-and-true bean, and since I‘m not a big fan of bending over — I get enough of that with weeding — I prefer the pole type, which climbs up to a more comfortable picking height. My neighbor has great success growing them on long poles in the shape of a teepee, which is a good idea if you have limited growing space.

I’m getting ready to lace string up and down from the wires that run the length of the garden over the bean row. Some years I’ve waited too long and the bean tendrils, reaching for the sky, flop over into the pathway. Then I have to fight with them as I try to run the strings and painstakingly string each tendril onto a string.

I may have learned gardening from watching my mom and grandma, but there are plenty of mistakes still to be made.

Beans are cold and moisture sensitive and can’t be planted too early. My seeds went in the ground the beginning of May and laid there for a while until the stretch of warm weather over the weekend of May 17 and 18 shot them up like magic.

One peculiar problem with growing beans is bacterial blight. This can be activated and spread by picking when the leaves are wet. I’ve seen a whole crop lost from this when it wilted and turned brown. It is controlled by using new bean seed every year and not planting in the same place from year to year.

Another disease is bean mosaic, which causes the plant to turn mottled and yellow. The only control for mosaic is to use disease resistant varieties, like Blue Lake.

Pole beans take only 65 days to produce the first beans, the narrow baby beans referred to as “haricot vert” — French for “green bean.” These are so tender and flavorful, all you need to do is blanch them for a minute and — yes, I’ll say it again — slather them with butter and salt.

When the beans get larger, they need to be snapped into sections and boiled for a few minutes or stir fried for about five minutes.

Beans grow well throughout the country, which might explain why they aren’t that common in the grocery store. I’ve never had great off-season “fresh” beans and would wait to get them from the local farmer’s market if you can’t grow your own or get them from a neighbor. They also freeze well, snapped and blanched for four minutes in small batches and placed in freezer bags with the air removed.

A favorite family recipe is to sauté in olive oil, a clove of garlic, a medium Walla Walla onion and 4 cups of snapped and stemmed beans for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Then add a teaspoon of McCormick Chicken Base, a heaping tablespoon of butter and a handful of fresh basil. Stir until butter is melted and serve.

When the beans get large and tougher at the end of the season, sauté them with bacon or ham, add a couple cups of water and let them simmer for a half hour or so until tender. These go great with cheesy scalloped potatoes and fried chicken.

No wonder my dad likes green beans. It must be hereditary.


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