Butterbeans!

[wsmoak]

I planted a whole packet of Violet's Multicolored Butterbeans (from Southern Exposure) and they are READY! They're past ready -- it says 80-90 days, and here we are at barely 75 and there are some rattling around in brown shells. So, I have plenty of seed saved for next year, with no effort at all.

These are so much fun to shell, you never know what color you're going to get.

http://www.southernexposure.com/violets-multicolored-butterbeans-bean-lima-pole-28-g-p-840.html

And it's a good thing they are fun to shell, because there are a LOT of them. I have them trellised on a cattle panel set on 8' t-posts, so that the top edge of the panel is about 6'6" off the ground, still within reach for me. (Anything less sturdy, they would have pulled down in a heap.) I planted about 1' out on both sides of the trellis, and had some trouble getting the vines to reach 2' up to find the bottom edge of it. Next year I think I will plant more directly underneath it, and hang... something, maybe a bit of field fence, off the bottom 2' so that they have an easy climb straight up.

DH has requested two rows of them next year, I'll have to buy another panel! Hopefully next year *he* can go pick them all (he's on crutches at the moment.)

I have some other different types of butterbeans in my collection, but this is the only one I managed to plant this year.

-Wendy

 

[thistlebloom]

So fun to hear garden success! I think you should post a picture Wendy...they sound like a bean you will keep on growing.

 

[Carol Dee]

these are going to look so yummy in your soups and bean dishes. So much variety. We have had such bad weather none of our Limas made it. Only got one mess of peas before the heat took them. Then the deer and rabbits munched off 1/2 the grean beans before they got a good start, now the Japenese beetles, heat and drought are fighting us for the remainder. (We have not gotten any to pick yet. )

 

[wsmoak]

As requested, butterbeans on the trellis:

120721_6749 by wsmoak, on Flickr

picked

120721_6768 by wsmoak, on Flickr

shelled dry beans (just like the picture from the catalog!)


120721_6765 by wsmoak, on Flickr

shelled, ready to cook


120721_6769 by wsmoak, on Flickr

-Wendy

 

[thistlebloom]

What? No picture of them cooked??

You did good, and you have a nice tidy garden too. They really are pretty beans.
Not like the ones mom used to make.

 

[ninnymary]

Those sure are pretty beans. I'm gonna try to find space for them next year. I think my preschoolers would love them. The trellis with them also looks lovely.

Mary

 

[wsmoak]

They are unappetizingly _brown_ when cooked. The darker ones do retain a little of the pattern, but mostly... it's a lima bean. Tastes like dirt. Creamy, buttery dirt in this case, but dirt all the same.

DH likes them though, and they are *expensive* at the Farmer's Market. I know why! Like blueberries, you have to evaluate each individual one when picking them (they don't ripen all at once.)

I think kids would like these -- you'd have to teach them to feel the pods to make sure they are big enough to pick, and there is immediate visual feedback if you've gotten it right (pretty colored bean vs. boring light green one.) You can tell from the pictures that we picked plenty of not-quite-mature ones.

-Wendy

 

[thistlebloom]

Hey! Somebody with the same opinion of lima bean, er, butter bean flavor as me! My dad loves lima beans, so guess what we got served a lot of. I still get that feeling in the back of my throat when I see them.

Sorry Wendy, yours are nice. Probably if I grew them my opinion would improve and I could eat them willingly.

 

[ninnymary]

Wendy, I was thinking of me picking them when ripe and the kids getting to open the pods. I like to use beans to make an outline of the letter "B" when we are learning that letter. Kids seem to enjoy gluing them on the outline that I've made for them.

Mary

 

[wsmoak]

Wendy, I was thinking of me picking them when ripe and the kids getting to open the pods. I like to use beans to make an outline of the letter "B" when we are learning that letter. Kids seem to enjoy gluing them on the outline that I've made for them.

They'd be great for that -- so many pretty colors and patterns. No need to figure out whether they're ready to pick, you can just let them dry on the vine, and pick them when they're rattling around in yellow pods.

-Wendy