For about a month, I have been picking green beans from the bushes I planted at the beginning of March. The bean plants are the most prolific of everything I planted. They are flowering all the time, and there are beans in all stages of growth on the bushes. This pretty much guarantees a continuous supply of green beans.
Pick, eat and share
I pick daily, but there aren’t always enough for a meal. When that is the case, I rinse and dry them and store them in the fridge in a plastic zipbag with a barely damp paper towel. This will keep them fresh for about a week if necessary. This allows me to keep picking until there are enough to cook or to give away.
Now, this is fresh!
I really can tell the difference in produce… in this case, green beans… picked and cooked right away and that bought from a grocer. Produce from the grocer is not necessarily bad, but it is different.
Just removing the stems is easier the fresher the beans are. There is no toughness at all. Sampling them raw is a treat. They are tender and crisp, and they snap, rather than bending.
The cooking time doesn’t seem to be as long, either. I saute green beans with a little bacon and onion, or I will toss them in the wok with olive oil and garlic. The taste is the clincher. So-o-o good!
40 minutes
Tonight, I picked green beans at 6:15, cleaned them, cooked them and had them ready to serve at 6:55. They went from the plant to my plate in 40 minutes. You can’t get much fresher than that. Bon appetit!
Tags: Green Beans · Raised Garden1 Comment
Lila, my Grandma Smith who lived in Oak Ridge pressured cooked her beans for 3 minutes. I now have my Mom’s cooker and make Grandma’s perfectly cooked green beans all the time.