Roma Italian Green Beans

When I was a boy, one of my favorite canned vegetables was Del Monte Cut Italian Green Beans.  Green Beans are one of the easiest things to grow, so you can imagine my excitement to find Italian Roma II Green Bean seeds.  We planted them several years ago and have kept them in the rotation ever since.  These are bush-type beans that don't need a pole to grow on.


Italian Roma II Flat green beans

These are prolific producers of flat green beans that continue to produce for a while.  

Nice size beans

The pods themselves are at least five inches long and they are tender. 


Cool beans!

I brought our produce bucket out to the garden and after ten minutes, I had a nice "mess" of beans picked.  With these beans being a bush bean, you have to be diligent in watching them as they mature.  I made the mistake of waiting a little too long before picking them and a few had bad spots on them where they had touched the ground.  Not a big problem as I simply cut the bad part out.  

Bucket 'O Beans

I put them in a colander and washed them up.  At this point they are ready for cooking.  We usually just steam them with some butter.  They blanch and freeze nicely or they do quite well being canned.

Roma Italian Green beans washed and ready for cooking

Tonight we grilled some chicken, steak, and sausage.  While the grill has heated up, we drizzled olive oil on top of some freshly picked zucchini and yellow squash and our Italian green beans and then put salt and pepper on them, put them in a grill basket and let them cook on the grill.  Delicious!

Grilled Italian Green Beans