In Appreciation of String Beans

I often wonder why there’s no excitement among farmers market shoppers when the first, fresh beans of the season appear on the stands. I see people buying them by the bagful but I don’t hear much happy chatter about this very useful vegetable. 

Some people may have memories of canned green beans, overcooked green beans, and even undercooked green beans depending upon what was in fashion when they were introduced to this vegetable. And, for cooks, it may also be that they think beans take a lot of fussy preparation.

String or Snap

I do recall sitting with a basin of green beans beside my Aunt Sophie, patiently pulling the strings off the sides. I know now that was because she chose to grow a very old variety that still had strings.

In his article "Buy this now: Beans, with 12 recipes," one of my favorite food writers, Russ Parsons, explained that this was unnecessary, “Most green beans had this string until the 1890s (hence the names ‘string beans’ and ‘snap beans’). It was an early New York plant developer named Calvin Keeney who bred the first stringless beans, which were introduced by Burpee in 1894.”

Today, most beans do not have to be destringed. You can just line up your beans on a cutting board and tip and tail them by cutting off a sliver of the stem and end. I actually find no need to remove the tip, so I just remove the stem. Then you can snap or cut the beans to the desired length for your dish. 

Tomorrow, I'll share some of my favorite ways to prepare beans and some cookbooks I use to find great bean recipes.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino  (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local Newspaper columns.)
Photos: ©2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

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