Beans! Beans! Beans!

Garden MESS!

Tonight's dinner vegetable comes to the table from that garden mass (or mess) to your very right. At one time, that big lump of greenery once looked like the straight rows of seeds that I planted in May. Those perfect and straight rows lasted for about all of five garden seconds. Then, the cucumbers ran over and strangled everything. Including the lawn.

There's basil in there! Three different varieties of basil I might add. You just can't see it unless you strain the old eyeballs. Another item in that garden mess is bush beans. There are two different varieties that I planted. Somehow they've managed to survive the cucumber vine onslaught that devoured all the space I set aside for them, and they are now producing some nice looking beans.

I harvested a few of them for dinner tonight, along with some basil. They will go nicely with the chicken legs that are currently marinating in a mixture of lemon juice, garlic salt, seasoned salt, and pepper. There's no big secret to preparing green beans, at least not in this house. I will cut off the stems and probably cut them in half, and then steam them for 10-15 minutes until they reach the desired level of "done" that I'm happy with. After draining off the water, I will mix in about a tablespoon of butter and perhaps a half tablespoon of chili garlic sauce that I have handy.

Bush Beans and Basil

If chili garlic sauce isn't your style because of the heat involved, I can always default to a jar of Tom Yum paste that I use in my favorite soup creation.

The bush beans represent one of the cheapest things to come out of the garden this year. All of the varieties that I planted, about eight seed packets worth, are heirloom varieties. Heirloom means old. These are the bush bean varieties that came out of your mother's garden, or perhaps your grandfather's garden location or maybe even great grandfather. They've been around for a very long time.

There's a reason why they've lasted so long. It really doesn't matter where you plant these bush bean seeds. They seems to do well from one end of the country to another. Specific climates don't really come into play here. Nor does the planting location. Seeds can be sown directly into the ground, or even a pot filled with gardening soil. The end result is they grow like the dickens. They also produce a boat load of seeds. Those seeds produced by commercial farmers go right back into the nation's gardening supply and wind up in seed packets that are still sold at a very economical (CHEAP) price.

Most of the beans that I harvested today and are pictured above are of the Cherokee Wax variety. They are a milky yellow-white in color. There are a few different stories about how this bush bean was discovered. I'm not sure which one is correct, but I can tell you one story is rather sad.

Cherokee Wax Beans

The first story is that the Cherokee Wax bush bean comes from the Cherokee people that are native to North America. It is believed that the Cherokee grew them for generations in the Great Smoky Mountain range of Tennessee and North Carolina. It is further believed that the Cherokee people carried these seeds with them during the Trail of Tears of 1838-1839, when they were forcibly moved from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma.

The second story is that the Cherokee Wax bush bean comes from agricultural research done at Clemson University in South Carolina. This variety was first released to the public in 1947 and has become a standard favorite in just about every American garden. Did Clemson University receive seeds for this bean from native Cherokees? That answer is probably a resounding yes, but I am not sure either. There's also a third story that this bean originated in the Andes region of South America.

Regardless of where it came from, I can tell you this is a great bean dish to have at the dinner table. They can also be canned for future use, a project that I may undertake with a second crop that I planted about a month after the first planting effort.

25-Cent Seed Packets

The second variety of bush bean that will be at tonight's dinner table is called Top Crop. Also known as TopCrop, this variety is a 1950 All-America Selections (AAS) winner. It was reportedly developed by Dr. W.J. Zaumeyer, who is listed as working for the United States Department of Agriculture in a 1930 crop report issued by the University of Wisconsin. These are green in color, and like the Cherokee Wax bean, are very good.

It's safe to say that I love bush beans. They are cheap seeds to buy and easy to grow. Bush beans make a fine side dish, and are welcome additions in soups, stews or anything else you may want to add them too. If I don't get around to canning a jar or ten, large amounts are tossed into a freezer-safe bag and frozen for future, winter usage.

These bush bean plants were not at all bothered by our recent heat wave in Northern California and, because of that heat, are a tad early this year. This does not bother me in the slightest. Food from the farm in back is always a welcome addition.