Discover Real Green Beans
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Early American Beans
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Columbus and other early explorers found Native Americans planting beans in their corn gardens (where the corn stalks acted as natural trellises), and many older, shade-tolerant, long-vining bean varieties are still available from companies that sell heirloom seeds. Pole beans were especially popular among early settlers in the southern Appalachians, where family clans competed to grow the best possible green beans. In Berea, Ky., Bill Best has established the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center as a conservation hub for regional heirloom crops, with a special emphasis on green beans. These early American beans are picked when the pods are full with immature beans. Stringing the beans, which Best compares to a meditation session, is a mandatory step in their preparation.
To string beans before cooking, Best suggests starting at the tail end of the bean, snapping off the end and pulling the string along the inner curve of the bean. Then snap the stem end and pull the string from the bean’s outer edge. Remove any residual bits of string as you snap the beans into bite-sized pieces.
Early American beans are a diverse group that includes “cut-short” varieties — in which the beans are packed so tightly in the pods that they square off at the ends — and “greasy beans,” so-called because the absence of hairs on the pods gives them a glossy sheen. In North Carolina where I live, greasy beans are regional specialties that sell for premium prices at farmers markets. Like most other early American beans, greasies can be cooked whole like other green beans, harvested as “shellies” (nearly mature beans with prominent green seeds) or allowed to mature into dry beans that are removed from their pods before cooking.
Preserve heirloom green beans by freezing or canning (be sure to remove the strings first), or try a method used by early American settlers — dry them into “leather britches.” Before refrigeration, food was preserved by either drying it or storing it in a cool root cellar. By drying whole green beans into leather britches, people could enjoy them throughout the winter.
“Now leather britches are eaten ceremoniously at family reunions, or for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s dinners. They are exceptionally good,” Best says. People used to string up green beans to dry using a needle and heavy thread, though Best prefers to dry the beans on a screen for several days. Once the beans are dry as leather, he stores the dried beans in the freezer.
Leather britches need to be soaked before cooking. Most old recipes suggest soaking them overnight, draining off the water, then simmering them for an hour, but Best likes to soak his beans overnight, followed by two more fresh-water soaks in the morning. After soaking, the beans are ready to be cooked as if they were fresh beans.
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