These are Henderson bush Lima beans or "butter beans" as my relatives in Mississippi would call them. My mother called me this morning and asked what I was doing. "Peeling Lima beans.", I replied. My Mother intoned, "No, your shelling Lima beans. You peel shrimp and shell peas and beans." (Shrimp have shells...so shouldn't we shell them???) So I stand corrected. Today I shelled Lima beans! Another meal from my garden. This is becoming a regular thing, and I am thrilled.
Lima beans originated in South America and around 1300 moved further up to North America. In the 1500's Lima beans made their move to Europe. As the beans were shipped around the world their origin was labeled on the package. Earning them the name- Lima-Peru or Lima beans! Now why Southerners call them butter beans that's another story I'll have to look up one day.
Figuring out when to pick them and keeping the caterpillars off of them, I've found three different caterpillar varieties on them so far, is the two largest challenges of growing them so far. Despite this, I picked a whole "mess of 'em" and there are a whole bunch left on the bush. They've grown well in our fall weather, which varies between 65 to 85 degrees.
Tonight's dinner.
Seleste is home with what I presume is the flu. She has fever, chills, head ache, muscle pain, and an ear ache. Here she is snoring away on the sofa while I peel..um I mean..shell Lima beans.
Lima beans originated in South America and around 1300 moved further up to North America. In the 1500's Lima beans made their move to Europe. As the beans were shipped around the world their origin was labeled on the package. Earning them the name- Lima-Peru or Lima beans! Now why Southerners call them butter beans that's another story I'll have to look up one day.
Figuring out when to pick them and keeping the caterpillars off of them, I've found three different caterpillar varieties on them so far, is the two largest challenges of growing them so far. Despite this, I picked a whole "mess of 'em" and there are a whole bunch left on the bush. They've grown well in our fall weather, which varies between 65 to 85 degrees.
Tonight's dinner.
Seleste is home with what I presume is the flu. She has fever, chills, head ache, muscle pain, and an ear ache. Here she is snoring away on the sofa while I peel..um I mean..shell Lima beans.
2 comments:
Poor Seleste. This is the beginning of the nasty stuff that floats around. Arrrhhh!
I love lima beans and those look great. But the rest of my family, not so much. I don't know why.
Here in on the coast in tropical Central America, lima beans are one of the easiest and most trouble-free veggies I've found so far. That surprised me, but it was a pleasant surprise as we can't buy them here.
You probably know this, but they freeze very well, too. Another interesting thing that I found was that if I picked them when the sun was really shining, I could see the size of the beans in the pods.
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