Pickin' The First Green Beans of the Season!

The cool days of spring are gone.  The mornings are in the 70's and the afternoons are in the upper 80's.  The warmer weather has kicked the garden into high gear.  I checked on our three rows of snap beans and believe it or not, two of the three were ready for harvest.  It wasn't a big harvest, mind you.  Most were still small, but we'll be picking every other day now.  We intend on blanching and freezing a bunch this year.  We were completely out!

Here's my favorite variety of green bean:

They are so tasty!  I went down the row and picked a few and put in a colander.

You'll notice these are 'flat,' unlike normal round green beans.

They are simply delicious.  Some call these Italian Green Beans.  The official variety name is Roma:

The second row had a few that were ready as well.  These are a different variety, one I've grown for years.  They are big producers.

I quickly picked a handful or two walking down that row and put them in a colander.

These aren't flat.  They are round like normal green beans.

And this variety name is: Contender:

I'm just having a little fun, spelling things out with our produce.  The only thing more fun is eating them.  I'm going inside to steam them and melt some butter over 'em!

Cool Beans!

This is the time of year that gardening is so rewarding.  The weather is still relatively cool.  It is not oppressively hot and humid yet.  The healthy green of the leaves is truly something to behold.  I stagger my planting of green beans to spread out the yield throughout the year after learning a technique from a good friend who used to go to church at our church prior to moving.  He told me that his Dad would plant snap beans staggered so that he had a green been harvest from spring through the fall.  Good idea!

As you can see there are some nice blooms on these Blue Lake Variety green beans.  I have some Contender variety planted as well, but the Blue Lake (named after the region in California where they were developed) beans are further along.

Pulling back the foliage from this neighboring plant, you can see beans of various sizes.  These green beans are prolific and require picking, once they start producing, just about every day so that you get them while they are still young and tender.

And here is the point where the dividends in the garden start paying off.  I pulled out some fresh-picked green beans and, it just so happens, the finest accompaniment to green beans were just harvested and ready.  I'm talking about new potatoes.  I just harvested these last week.  I pulled out the small ones - those a little smaller than a golf ball, to cook with the green beans.  

Fresh green beans, new potatoes, butter and a little salt.  You've got yourself a delicious side dish!

As they keep coming in, we'll eat some, give some away, and blanch and freeze the rest.  I'll also get another row planted in order to keep the bountiful green bean harvests coming in.

It is Hard to Beat Fresh-Picked Green Beans

At some point in April is the time that we normally harvest our first mess of green beans.  I always look forward to this time.  The nights are still kind of cool and enjoyable and a respite from the sweltering days to come.  These nice temperatures are kind to the beans enabling them to not be as stressed from the overbearing heat that will cause them to fade and droop in months to come.

I come in from work and try harvest two rows of beans before the big ball of burning gas dips beneath the western horizon.  The hens cackle as they scurry to their appointed roosting spots for the night.  Soon I'll head to my roosting spot, too.

Healthy Green Beans

This year I planted my favorite varieties: Contenders, Blue Lake, and Italian Roma II.  In the photo below you can see the Romas.  They are a flat, tasty bean and are my favorite.

In a short time, I pick a bucket full of perfect, unmarred green beans (haricot verts).  Later in the season, I have to cut off bug damage from some of the beans.  Not so, today.  They are beautiful beans, crisp and fresh.  Since we're using wood chip mulch in the garden, the vegetables all stay so clean, but I still like to give them a good washing before snapping off the ends.

I like to pick most of the beans when they are young.  I like them tender.  Sometimes the bigger ones are tough and can be "woody."  A few were larger than I like, but after a rain, I find they grow so quickly.  It is important to pick every other night to keep on top of the harvest and not let them get too big.

This weekend we lit up the fire pit with a lot of live oak and pecan branches that we picked up in the yard after the recent storm.  The fire pit has a grill and we like to cook over a real wood fire.  We put plenty of butter in the bottom of a cast iron dutch oven, sliced some onions and let them saute for a bit.  Then we added the fresh snapped green beans.

In no time they were cooked to perfection.  We just added some salt, cracked black pepper and a little cayenne.

I like to space out and stagger the plantings of green beans, so that when these plants "play out," another planting of green beans will be blooming and I can soon harvest those.  I learned this from a good friend that moved to north Louisiana.  He told me one time that his Daddy aimed to keep green beans growing for months using the staggered planting model.

I like that technique.  I can eat green beans and never get tired of them.  I've asked Tricia to cook them soon using one of my other favorite green bean recipes - bacon wrapped green beans.  (Of course anything tastes good with bacon wrapped around it, right?)

Fresh Green Beans 2015

We planted two different varieties of green beans in our garden this year - Contender Green Beans and Italian Roma II Green Beans.  Normally I plant some Dragon Tongue Beans too, but I didn't plant any this year.  I'll probably put some in this Fall.  I like the novelty of the purple stripes on them, but they also taste great. Once the storm clouds departed from our seemingly unending deluge, I went out and checked on our three rows of beans. They were loaded up with blooms!

Blooming Beans

I think the blooms are very pretty...

But it's what comes after the blooms that I get excited about!  Time to get a bucket, straddle the rows and start picking.  I tend to be impatient, but you really have to slow down when you are hand picking green beans.  I use two hands to pull them, because if you use only one, you run the risk of pulling the whole end off of the bush and losing many blooms and baby green beans.  It's just better to slow down, hold the stem with one hand and pull the bean off with the other.  Better safe than sorry.

Ready for Picking!

In just one day I picked roughly a 5 gallon bucket of Contender Green Beans.  Of course we can't eat all of those in one sitting, so we normally blanch them and freeze in Quart size freezer bags.  That enables us to pull a bag out of the freezer for a fresh frozen side dish for many meals - long after 'green bean season' has ended.

I'll dump out batches of beans into our vegetable sink and fill it with water and swish the beans around in the water with my hands.   This allows the tiny bugs and worms to float to the top and I remove them.

Removing the critters

Then I'll put them in a colander and spray water over them to make sure they are really clean

Clean Beans

Although I like Contender green beans, my absolute favorite are the Italian Roma green beans.  The pods are flat in shape and they don't yield as much as the Contenders do, but the flavor of the beans are fantastic.  I really look forward to eating these each year.

Italian Roma Beans

Sometimes we leave the green beans that we're going to blanch and freeze whole and sometimes we cut them in half or in thirds prior to blanching.

Cutting the beans up

I'll get some water heating up on the stove top.  When it is boiling, I'll place a colander full of beans in the water, put the cover on, and set the timer for 3 minutes. Blanching stops the enzyme that breaks down the color, flavor and texture of the beans, so if you are going to freeze them, it is a must.

Set the timer for 3 minutes

I'll fill a clean sink with ice water and when I remove the beans from the boiling water, I dump them directly into a colander sitting in the water.  This quickly stops the cooking process.  The beans will retain the beautiful green color and crispness that you are accustomed to with fresh green beans that is unlike the dull, dark green, soft beans you get with canned beans.

Cooling them down

Then we drain them and put the beans into the quart sized freezer bags and stack them up in the freezer.  I have to check the rows of beans every few days, because the harvest just keeps on coming. It is a good thing to get the beans planted before it really gets hot as the beans will drop the blossoms as the high temperatures arrive, drastically reducing your yield.  We're looking forward to putting lots in the freezer, maybe canning a few, and definitely eating a bunch of them fresh, cooked along with new potatoes!