Aren’t these pretty?
These are heirloom ‘climbing beans’ called Selma Zebra.
I love green beans that aren’t green.
They’re so much easier to find among all the green leaves.
If someone could come up with bright red or orange beans it would be even nicer.
I digress.
Please don’t tell anyone…. but I like American Pole Beans better than the slim French Haricot Vert.
Oh, the French beans make a nicer presentation and, they are delicious, but they’re not as ‘meaty’ as the ones I grew up with.
Green beans are my very favorite summer vegetable. I’m as fussy about the beans in summer as I am about asparagus in the spring.
And, like the asparagus, if they’re not fresh from the garden (mine for the beans, someone else’s for the asparagus) I don’t bother.
When my friend came to visit this spring she was kind enough to bring some packets of green bean seeds with her.
Happy summer!
The recipe, Green Bean & Tomato Pasta Salad, has been updated and re-posted here: Green Bean Pasta Salad.
I love it when we can start eating out of the garden.
It’s been very slow to start this year. It was cold and rainy all of June; very hot and dry all of July.
Apparently, the vegetables, for the most part, don’t like such extremes.
My zucchini are barely producing – can you believe it? Zucchini?
The beans and tomatoes are incredibly big leafy plants – but very few beans and no ripe tomatoes (other than the cherries).
The sweet corn stayed ankle high for weeks, then shot up to elbow high, stopped growing and is starting to tassel.
I’m attempting to practice patience and develop a zen-like attitude.
What will be will be.
Not really my nature but I can try.
I am not a green bean eater – it must be something my mother did to them when I was a child plus they would have been frozen.
I planted some of these Zebras against a wall this year here in Los Angeles. They seem to be struggling but I still hold high hopes. Especially now that I have seen these beauties. GREg
Kate, and I loved the way my mother fixed them – it was one of the few fresh vegetables we had. Fresh had to come from the garden.
Greg, my plants actually look kind of pathetic, but they are producing and the beans are great. Good luck!