SC - green beans

[DUNHAM Patricia R]

Having grown pole beans last summer and favas and Jacob's cattle beans
(one of the kinds you dry and make soup from) this summer...

The seeds you plant pole beans from look about a quarter the size, but
the same general bean-shape as a fava...  (about 1.5 times the size of a
seed pea-- we also had regular peas and sugar pods, both years).  I
don't think pole-bean seeds are sold for anything besides growing more
pole beans, to eat the flesh of, but that's a very casual opinion.   The
seeds you would see in frozen or canned green beans would be of an
immature size.  I think the kinds of beans you use for baked beans and
chili and so forth are not mature green-bean seeds, but types that are
grown specifically for the dried seeds, like the Jacob's cattle (an old
variety, name comes from they're brown and white speckled).  (Yeah, I
got inspired by John Thorne's latest book; I MAY have enough for one
batch of baked beans 8-).)

To a casual observer (me), green beans and favas appear quite similar
when growing.  We didn't stake the favas because we didn't understand
they'd try to grow to 6 feet!   I think the leaves are generally similar
and the favas and pole beans both have climbing tendrils... the pole
beans' tendrils seem to be much sturdier and more active than the favas.
The fava pods are about twice the size of a green bean, same length,
but, well, --broader-- , and flatter rather than green-bean round...
they -look- like there'd be lima-shaped beans in them...  And before the
fava pods mature and start to dry, they're green.

The foliage of  the pole beans as I recall stay brighter green for
longer.  The favas started to fade (paler and paler green) sooner,
didn't seem nearly as vibrant as the other two types.  The real
difference is in harvesting... you pick the pole beans whole and eat
them out of hand clear thru the growing season 8-), or can or freeze or
whatever.  The drying beans stay on the bush while the pod goes tan and
papery as it and the beans dry.   (Then you pick and shell and winnow
the pod scraps out...)  And the Fava pods dry BLACK and withered looking
around the beans... a very odd effect.  And you sort of pry the pod off
in hard solid chunks.

So there's a lot of visual similarity between favas and green beans when
young and growing, and by the time you get the big harvest difference,
you've already eaten enough green beans to know a good thing!
Especially cause there is edible produce there from an early stage, on
the pole/green beans, which isn't available with the favas or
drying-beans (well, I didn't try either of those when they were little,
'cause I was pre-programmed to go for the storage end-product...)

Hope this helps,

Chimene
 ----------
| From: Mark Harris
| To: SCA-Cooks maillist
| Subject: Re: SC - green beans
| Date: Wednesday, November 19, 1997 10:28AM
|
| I said:
|
| << Pineapple, I can see. They are sweet which was craved. They are
|  unusual which makes them ideal for gardens of exotics.
|
|  Same goes for peppers and perhaps for Turkeys. They fill a percieved
|  need.
|
|  But green beans?>>
|
| And Lord Ras replied:
|
| >Such a dual purpose food which had the advantage of looking very
similar to
| >an already known product, favas, would not have had the problem of
exceptance
| >that such foods as tomatoes or potatoes would have (and did).
|
| But do favas and green beans look alike? I thought favas were big, tan
colored
| things similar to lima beans. In that case, I don't think they look
like or
| would be substituted for fava beans. But I may not be right on what
fava beans
| look like and will look for some.
|
| The only green beans I know have seeds a bit smaller than green peas
and are
| encased in a little green sack or tube, fresh, canned or frozen. If
this is
| the immature seed, are the more mature seeds sold today? Perhaps under
a
| different name?
|
| If they do look similar then yes, I agree. Either way, the evidence
that you
| point to of them being used may override this appearance argument
anyway.
|
| Thank you for this useful info.
|
| Stefan li Rous
| RSVE60 at email.sps.mot.com
|
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