On Sat, 19 Nov 2005, jmcquown wrote:

> Elaine Parrish wrote:
> > On Thu, 17 Nov 2005, Christine Dabney wrote:
> >
> >> Okay folks,
> >>
> >> We were chatting on the chat channel, and we started talking bout
> >> butter beans. I grew up in VA, and I had them all the time. To me,
> >> they are smaller than a lima, and a pale green. And they stay that
> >> way when they are cooked. Boli agrees with this description of them.
> >>
> >> Others in the discussion say they are much larger, and tan. Or buff
> >> or khaki colored.
> >>
> >> I have never seen butter beans like that...
> >>
> >> For those of you who know about butter beans, what is your
> >> description of them?
> >>
> >> Christine
> >>
> >
> > 'Round here, a butter bean is a big, plump, cream-colored, kinda
> > half-moon-shaped (like the lima) bean about the size of an average
> > thumb nail on a man
> >
> > The lima bean is a medium sized (about the size of the index finger
> > nail), grass-green, plump bean. The sizes vary because all the beans
> > (two, three, or four) in the pod don't mature at the same time. If
> > picked very young, they can be as tiny as the tip of the little
> > finger (much like the difference in size in "young, green peas" and
> > regular green peas).
> >
> > The Fordhook lima is a large, plump, green, tougher-skin-than-a-lima,
> > bean about the size of the butter bean above.
> >
> > Then there is a little (smaller than the lima) and more round than
> > half moon thing that is light green and some are so light green as to
> > look white and some can be a combination of light green and lighter
> > green. We call this a butter pea (not a butter bean).
> >
> > There is also a brown butter bean, called a speckled butter bean,
> > that is a tad bigger than a regular lima and is "speckled"
> >
> >
> > The big, cream-colored butter beans aren't seen very often in stores
> > around here. They
> > come canned, but they are not good, because they are hard (or this has
> > been the case with the only few brands I have ever found that offered
> > them, which haven't been very many; Bush's comes to mind.). They come
> > dried, but they don't reconstitute well and when cooked, the casing
> > (the part that holds the soft insides (just like the insides of the
> > lima bean) separates and the insides come out. Because they are soft,
> > they just thicken the cooking water. The casing stays intact, but it
> > is empty. So, they don't make a side dish like limas do. Of
> > course, cooked with a little ham and poured over a bowl of cornbread
> > dotted with raw chopped red onions or spring onions, this "soup" is
> > mighty good on a cold winter's day.
> >
> > I have never seen them frozen. hmmmm
> >
> > We had them when I was a kid, but we grew them in the garden.
> >
> > Elaine, too
>
> I've never read a better description of butter beans! Thanks, Elaine! Yep,
> Bush's makes canned large butter beens. I've never seen them frozen,
> either. They are definitely bigger than even a Fordhook lima bean and are
> tan/yellow.
>
> Jill
>
>
>

Thanks, Jill.

After I read this thread, I was trying to remember how my
grandmother "put them up" for the winter. I don't remember her ever doing
anything with butter beans. we only had them through the growing season,
like cabbage (she didn't make kraut) or melons. We had the others year
round, though. So, maybe there just isn't a good way to keep them.

We grew a lot of limas. My grandfather planted them with the "sweet corn"
and they grew around the stalks near the ground. Talk about your
Succotash! I always loved (and still do) limas. But that crawling around
on the ground under the corn to pick them gave me the creeps. It was
always cool and shaded so the snakes loved it, as did other creeping,
crawling things. booowaaah. Still makes me
shiver to think of it. Luckily, the dogs liked to go with us and they
would blaze a path. We'd pick for hours, have tons of limas, shell for
hours, and end up with a cup and a half of lima beans! <g> They were labor
intensive.

Elaine, too