Know Your Beans

Kathy Woolsey

   Is Green Bean Casserole on the menu this Thanksgiving at your house? My family serves green beans with a little pork for Thanksgiving and for just about every holiday.  I doubt green bean casserole was on the first Thanksgiving menu; French fried onions were hard to come by back then.  November would have been too late in the season for green beans anyway, but shelled beans were most likely served.  The Wampanoag’s grew many cultivars of Phaseolus vulgaris the common bean and shared them with the Pilgrims.  Kidney, Pinto, Navy, Black Turtle, and green beans are just a few of the hundreds of varieties of grown by Native Americans.   Today, the Seed Savers Exchange lists over 4000 cultivars of Phaseolus vulgaris from around the Americas.

     Common Beans can be bush, half-runner, or pole.  They can be eaten young as green beans or fresh shelled or dried.  These beans originated in Central America and quickly spread north and south. The Spanish took them east and west.   Eastern Native Peoples planted corn and beans together on the same mound so the beans could climb the corn stalks.

There are other species of beans native to the Americas, Phaseolus coccineus the Scarlet Runner bean, Phaseolus lunatus the Lima bean and Phaseolus acutifolius, the Tepary bean.

The Tepary bean thrives in the dry Southwestern US. They are rarely grown or seen around here. They are usually eaten fresh shelled or dried very much like the common bean.

The Scarlet Runner bean prefers a cooler climate. It is grown as an ornamental in many gardens for its bright red flowers. The beans can be black or purple. It can be eaten as a green bean and a shelled bean. I have never had much luck growing them around here. 

There has always been a debate about Lima Beans and Butterbeans. The truth is they are both Phaseolus lunatus. Some folks call the big ones Limas and the small ones Butterbeans. They are called Limas because Europeans first saw them in Lima Peru.  ‘Carolina Sieva Pole’ bean is an heirloom variety that thrives in the heat and produces small white butterbeans. ‘Thorogreen’ Bush Lima is the most popular variety in the South, with a good yield of light green colored beans that are wonderful in Okra soup.    

At Farmers Seed we sell about 20 different varieties of green beans Phaseolus vulgaris.  Our favorite is ‘Roma II’, a flat pod with a white bean. The pods are flavorful and always tender and never a string even when the pods were mature. We called them snaps. Every Sunday mother would fill the bottom of a big pressure cooker with snaps and a piece of side meat and place peeled white potatoes on top. This she would cook until the potatoes were soft and the snaps would melt in your mouth.  #beans, #Garden

The Three Sister Garden of the First Peoples

Although we grow many of the same crops as Native Americans, our gardens look very different.  Today we plant our gardens in neat rows that are carefully spaced and our crops organized for crop rotation.  A patch of corn here and a few rows of beans over there and then there are large commercial farms with hundreds of acres of a single crop. Native Americans developed a unique system of companion planting that was well established before Europeans arrived.  Corn, beans, and squash were gifts of the Great Sprit and were called the Three Sisters and always planted together in the garden.  The Three Sisters Garden has always fascinated me for I am the oldest of 3 sisters and we all love to garden.

There were many tribes in North America and many had their own legends about the Three Sisters and there were variation in the garden design as well.  Some gardens were large circles with mounds of soil spaced 4- 5 foot apart.  The mounds were about hand high and 20 inches wide, with a flat top.  The corn was planted first.  Many of the First Peoples looked for a sign from nature to tell them it was time to plant. My father always said to plant corn when you hear the Whip-poor-wills calling at night.  

Planting the Sisters

Men hunted, fished and tended the tobacco plants. Women cleared the land and did most of the vegetable planting.  Four corn seeds were planted on the top of the mound in a circle spaced about a hand stretch apart. Often the seeds were lined up with the compass points to honor the four directions.  When the corn reached about hand high, the beans were planted in between the corn to complete the circle. After the beans were up the squash was planted on the side of the mound.  The three sisters helped each other as sisters do. The beans could climb up the corn and provide the corn plant Nitrogen in the soil. The squash would run about on the ground and shade the soil keeping moister in and weeds out.  There were some variations; sometimes the squash was planted on smaller mounds in between the larger corn and bean mounds.  The First Peoples cook corn and beans together in a dish called succotash.  The Proteins from the corn and bean combination is equal that of meat. 

Some eastern tribes planted Sunflowers Helianthus annuus along the north edge of the garden. Tribes west of the Mississippi planted Cleome hassieranna around the garden.  Lewis and Clark called the cleome the Rocky Mountain bee plant.  These flowers provided food for the pollinators and the sunflower seeds provided food for the people too. 

 Pumpkins are the unruly sister and were planted in a separate patch because the vines could climb up the corn and the heavy weight of the fruit would pull down the corn.   Did the Pilgrims serve pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving? Probably not, since sugar, flour and Crisco were in short supply in 1621. Traditionally a whole pumpkin was placed on a bed of hot embers and roasted until it collapsed and then served without any Cool Whip. 

Kathy Rice Woolsey 

Butternut Squash -Very Good

“Try it, it’s good for you” was a common phrase at our table, usually said by me and directed to my boys. However with Butternut squash I would say “this is really, really good for you”. 

Butternut is a super food packed with vitamins, fiber and anti-oxidants and I think it tastes good too. Last Thanksgiving, I used Butternut instead of pumpkin and nobody noticed my pumpkin pie had no pumpkin in it. 

Why is Butternut a super food? Cooked Butternut has an incredible 457% DV Vitamin A and 51% Vitamin C to start with.  Compare that to Acorn Squash at 12% vitamin A and 25% vitamin C. Oranges have 85% Vitamin C but only 4% Vitamin A. Plant based Vitamin A is called Beta carotene and is an important anti-oxidant.  Vitamin A helps protect the surface of the eye and is important for good vision. Vitamin A deficiency in children can lead to blindness.  Other orange vegetables such as Cantaloupes and Sweet potatoes are also high in Vitamin A.

An added bonus with Butternut is that it is easy to grow and versatile in the kitchen. I grew Butternut and Spaghetti squash last summer and was surprised how well they grew. Butternuts needs full sun and plenty of room. The vines can run 15 feet or more.  It is important not to pick the squash too soon.  If you want to store it during the winter, let the stem turn brown or die before harvesting. Be sure to cut off the stem about 2 inches long – if the stem is removed the squash will not store long.  I leave the butternuts and spaghetti squash on the porch a few weeks to cure. Then I bring them in the house where they will sit in the kitchen for months until I need them.  Butternuts can be made into pies and soups or roasted or pureed.

My friend Sherri has traveled several times to Australia and she says that Butternut is on almost every menu.  This American vegetable is called Butternut pumpkin in the land down under where it is used as a vegetable and dessert. 

Many recipes call for you to peel before you cook it but I think it easier to cook the butternut first and simply scoop out the meat.  To prepare butternut, I cut the neck off and cut again lengthwise and remove the seeds. I prefer to steam it in my presser cooker but it can be microwaved and baked in the oven as well.  After it is cooked, it can be used to make a pie or you might want to try this soup recipe given to me by Sherri Edwards.  This is my favorite way to eat Butternut Squash if you do not like spicy soup leave out the pepper jack cheese. A perfect soup for a cold winter day and it’s good for you too.

  Butternut and Cheddar Cheese Soup

I large Butternut cooked

4 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)

1 cup sour cream or yogurt

½ c. mild cheddar cheese

½ c. pepper jack cheese

¼ teaspoon ground red pepper and salt and pepper

Add the cooked squash to the broth and puree with a hand blender or blender.  Heat on the stove top slowly and add the sour cream. Do not let the soup come to a boil or the cheese will separate. Add the cheese and spices. Serve as soon as the cheese melts.  I like to garnish with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.