Fresh Green Beans from the Garden

We have fresh green beans that are ripe right now and we've been harvesting them and enjoying them.  These are Contender Green Beans.  They are in many stages, starting off with the bloom stage:


Contender Green Bean bloom

To baby green beans...  

Tiny beans

To ready for pickin'...


Ripe & Ready

So I assembled my harvesting crew to go through the row of ripening green beans and pick ones that are ready for cooking.    

Harvesting Beans

Russ was able to pull a bunch of beans from the plants and there are many more to go.  We'll have staggered harvests for a while now.

He brought them inside and washed them and then "strung" them.  This is when you cut off the ends and pull the "string" off of them.  These are ready for cooking! 

Ready for cooking

To accompany our Mother's Day meal, we made bacon wrapped green beans.  Here's the recipe that I found at www.tasteofhome.com:

Place beans in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, for

8 minutes or until crisp-tender. Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until

cooked but not crisp, about 3 minutes. Remove to paper towels.

Drain beans; place about 12 beans on each bacon strip. Wrap bacon around beans and

secure with a toothpick. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.

In a small bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, garlic salt and soy sauce; brush over

bundles. Bake at 400° for 10-15 minutes or until bacon is crisp.

An enjoyable meal

Fresh green beans out of the garden are just delicious and can't be compared to canned green beans.  I hope they keep producing because we ate all of the beans Russ picked in just two sittings.