Beans
Featured Recipes: Gardening Tips: Just because legumes are known to improve the soil in which they grow, it does not mean that they needn't be planted in good soil themselves. This is especially true of beans. If you dig in well-rotted manure at the time of planting, your bean plants will grow better, be more free from disease and
give you a better yield.
Beans Show Their Colors
My favorite use for purple-podded beans is to pick them while
slim and tender, along with green and yellow ones, and arrange
all three on a platter with a hummus dip. |
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Beans are the mainstay of the kitchen garden: both easy and rewarding. Store-bought can’t compare with home-grown beans; modest toil and small bean patches yield large returns. To satisfy zee french in you, four are haricots verts or ultra-slim ‘filet’ types, difficult to find at the market and coveted by chefs everywhere. Beans are native to South America: sow when soil has reliably warmed to 60°F or by the last frost date. Harvest straight to the kitchen at their optimal size for eating, usually when small. Pick ‘filet’ types when scandalously thin. Don’t wait until seeds form in their tender pods because by then, the sweetness, not to mention the tender-crispness, is lost.
Average seed life: 2-3 years
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