Loretta’s Lesson in Beans

Loretta has been through a thing or two. Even though she doesn’t live with the other chickens, she has stories to tell. After she was beaten up a few times by Buster, she had to start living closer to people, so that we could keep an eye on her and so the Rhode Island reds wouldn’t beat her up on the playground. But as a result, she gets to see interesting things, like the bean harvest for example, which she is thoughtfully highlighting for you here…

Bean harvesting is an interesting thing because the beans change by the day. You have to visit them every few days and inspect the pods. Some shells will be brown, some will still be green, some will have plump red beans inside, some will only have the beginnings of a bean…

And so of course they will cook differently… the little green and tender pink ones can be eaten raw… while the big dried ones can be stored for the winter and cooked at your leisure.

The hands of one lovely harvester, M. Pellegrini, popping open the shells to see what’s inside…

Sometimes you don’t know what will be inside, each little pod is like unwrapping a present.

And that is what makes the tedious work worth it… the taste of a tender raw bean that can be eaten like popcorn…

And the sight of a jar full of dried beans, all sorted and ready for the winter. A jar of October memories for the cold winter months.

For a recipe in how to cook them, buy yourself a slab of bacon, then go here.