Farmers Market Report

Oh, Beans!

Laura Avery

Mirror contributing writer

Sweet, crisp, tender and buttery, hot or cold, beans are tasty and abundant. Large, lumpy fava bean pods -– up to a foot long -– yield delectable treasures. Once the outer pod, which nestles the beans inside in puffy white padding resembling styrofoam, is removed, the large favas inside are wrapped in another protective skin. Favas can be either green or tan depending on maturity. Tan ones tend to be drier and similar to lima beans; the green ones are the true prize. To cook, gently boil for a minute or two, then slip them out of their second skin. Their taste is rich and buttery, and they can be eaten as is or added to any hot or cold dish where they can withstand plenty of seasoning. Very young favas do not develop the thick second skin and can be eaten without a second peeling.
Flat green Hawaiian beans are often overlooked because of their woody appearance. These are actually very tender and tasty beans that become quite delectable when lightly steamed which brings out their rich, satisfying flavor. Similar in appearance is the Romano bean, a flat, "Italian" style green bean that also comes in a yellow variety that is a shade sweeter. As with the Hawaiian beans, the Romanos should be cooked very briefly or they become mushy. Their flavor is not worth trying in the raw state; they truly come alive when cooked.
Mounds of "string" beans in yellow, purple and green have arrived. These are actually stringless; long, slim beans that need only to be trimmed at the ends before cooking and eating. Purple beans fade when heated and take on their inner green color. All of these beans are very tender and can be eaten raw, and they make a colorful addition to salads and pasta. Beans bear in succession and can be plentiful one week and nearly absent the next. Prices range between $4 and $5 per pound, but yellow beans were just spotted at Pavillions going for a shocking $12 per pound. Tiny haricots verts have a robust, nut-like flavor and look spectacular when piled on a serving plate.
Several types of beans are sprouted, including mung, garbanzo, black and aduki. During the sprouting process, the beans possess their maximum nutritional content and they are soft enough to be eaten without cooking. Sprinkled on salads or mixed and eaten as a salad alone, they have a crunchy hearty taste and texture that is filling and satisfying. They can all be adapted in traditional Middle Eastern hummous which consists of pureed beans, sesame seeds and seasonings. They can also be added to pasta dough for those who like to make their own pasta from scratch. Sprouted beans make a wonderful addition to rice or stir fried dishes, although some of their nutritional value gets lost during the heating process.
Some of the limelight shed on beans must necessarily fall on another vegetable in a pod –- sweet peas. English shelling peas are just going out of season, but are still available. They are very similar in appearance to sugar snap peas although the ends of their pods are more square than sugar snaps. Small peas packed tightly into their pods are fun to peel scoop out and eat raw. Sugar snaps are aptly named for their sweetness and crunch, and flavor intensity varies from farmer to farmer. It is best to sample some at each stand before buying. Peas do best in cool weather, so the onset of summer heat is sure to affect their flavor. For anyone concerned about "gas" associated with consuming cooked beans, check for epizote at farmers’ stands. Epizote is a Mexican herb that is put into the cooking water with beans and is amazingly effective at eliminating the gas problem.
Upcoming weeks and months at the markets will continue to see more bean varieties coming in, including dragon tongues, scarlet and mauve runners and soybeans. 
Be sure to plan to attend our next gardening workshop to be held at Virginia park on June 24th from 10 am to noon. The topic is "Worm Composting" -– how to turn kitchen scraps into high quality compost in just six weeks. Classes are free and limited to the first 25 applicants. To enroll, call Virginia Avenue Park’s Thelma Terry Center at 310-458-8366. One free worm composting kit will be raffled off at the class.