Green beans (in all colors)

A quick introduction

At the farm, we grow green beans but also purple and yellow 'green' beans. Some of our beans are long and thick (we call them speck beans) and other are more delicate. They can be used in recipes interchangeably but you might want to adjust the cooking times a little for the bigger beans. We grow both bush beans variety and climbing beans. Their plants grow incredibly fast and when summer is in full swing we do almost daily rounds of bean picking. This is a time consuming job and can take up to a few hours!

Storage

Green beans will keep fine for a few days in a paper bag in the fridge

Season

Summer to fall

Suggestions for preparation

Beans pair well with more intense flavours such as lemon, butter, garlic, or bacon. Beans should be cooked as they are a little toxic when eaten raw.

To clean the green beans, cut off only the tough tops (the pointy end can stay on). Afterwards, they can be cut or left whole and be prepared in different ways such as blanching, boiling, sautéing or roasting. Try blanching the green beans to soften them up and then adding them to a hot pan with some olive oil to get them nicely blistered, or add them to a simple tomato sauce to create a delicious vegetarian side. In the classic and delicious pasta al pesto Genovese recipe, boiled green beans are used alongside pesto and boiled potatoes as a pasta sauce.