More Judias Verdes

We're deep in bean season. All but one of our plants is thriving and producing. We've gotten to the point where we can no longer eat nearly enough beans to match our rate of harvest. It's crazy. At the moment, we're harvesting a large colander-full of beans every other day.

We've made:
Beans sauteed with jamon and olive oil
Beans boiled and then sauteed with jamon, pimenton, and olive oil
Tortilla espanola with green beans
Shrimp stir-fry with green beans (this was the best one, I think)
Blanched beans finished with garlic on the grill.
Beans sauteed with canned tomatoes, garlic, onion and topped with fried onions.
Beans sauteed with canned tomatoes, garlic, and onions.

I hope to make a vegetable paella soon.

Judias Verdes

On my original trips to Spain, I became enamoured of the green beans they eat over there. They're similar to our green beans, but longer, wider, and more tender. On a trip to the Pyrenees, I recall seeing pyramids of green beans climbing in many gardens. They are a kind of pole bean and are cultivated on a pyramid of support poles. They are super delicious beans, often served sauteed in olive oil with jamon serrano. In Spain, they call their beans "judias," which is also the word for "Jew," so these beans are "green Jews." It would be interesting to hear an authoritative explanation of history why their beans are called "judias."

When Lisa and I visited Spain last September, a package of these precious seeds somehow ended up in our luggage along with some seeds of some Spanish green peppers (pimientos verdes and pimientos de Padron). We've got our crop of beans going now, climbing up our pyramids of split two by fours. I'm so excited, that I'm checking the beans three or four times daily. They're growing really fast right now, maybe 6-8 inches each day. It's crazy. Unless we get some bad hail, I'm expecting to have massive amounts of beans come August and September. The pimientos did not do so well, unfortunately. I've got the pimientos de Padron growing in pots, but they're growing really slowly. We have a friend trying to grow the plain pimientos verdes on his farm where he grows green chile, but last I heard, he hadn't had any luck getting the seeds started (this is a tragedy for me).