Picking Butterbeans

This spring I planted two types of lima beans on a trellis in the garden made with a concrete reinforcement panel - speckled lima beans and Henderson lima beans. They both climb like Jack's magic beanstalk, and the only problem with that is that they can climb so high that it is difficult to pick the pods from the uppermost vines. Since the fall garden is in full swing, and the leaves of the climbing lima beans are falling to the ground, I figured it best that I get out there and pick the stragglers before the beans shatter to the ground or sprout in the pod.

I grabbed an 8 cup measuring cup and walked out to pick some beans.  The remnants of Hurricane Patricia were still coming through our area.  I dropped 5 1/2 inches of much needed rain on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm and an easterly breeze was blowing as I began filling the measuring cup with lima bean pods.  Or maybe I should call them butterbeans.  I like the term butterbeans for them a bit better.  When cooked with some sausage, they are creamy, rich and delicious, just like butter.

When Russ was just a baby (now he's 20!), he had a serious, life-threatening condition that required a lifeflight transport to New Orleans for emergency surgery. He was only a day old, and I remember one of his flight nurses on his transport team nicknamed him "her little butterbean!"  I still remember that.  Anyway, here are three butterbean pods, plump, full and ready for picking!  Some pods are brown and the beans inside harder and dry, but that's okay.  They both are good eating.

Henderson Lima Beans

It didn't take me long to pick two quarts of butterbeans and some Purple Beauty Bell Peppers.  It was nice outside and while picking, I watched the cows munching on the hay bale and the chickens chasing down bugs in the pasture.  Penelope the peahen was making her daily trek from the pasture, over the fence, into the yard and up into the very top of a live oak tree where she roosts for the night.

2 Quarts of  Butterbeans

Here is a Henderson Lima Bean:

Henderson Lima Bean shelled

And here is a Speckled Butterbean:

Speckled Butterbean shelled

I enlisted Benjamin's help and we sat on the floor and shelled the butterbeans.  It is an easy job.  The pods pop right open and the beans go in one bowl and the pods go into another.  The beans, obviously, will be eaten while the pods will be composted right back into the garden soil.

Shelling Butterbeans

In just a little while, we were done.  We had a beautiful bowl full of fat butterbeans.

A Bowl of Butterbeans

I can't wait to eat these cooked down with a little sausage or tasso for some smoky flavor and served over rice, with some buttery cornbread on the side.