Elaine Parrish wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Nov 2005, Scott Robins wrote:
>
>> I am not a botanist, nor do I play one on the internet. But...
>>
>> It looks like butter beans and lima beans are 2 distinct varieties,
>> albeit very similar. Most of the web sites I found when I googled
>> "phaseolus lunatus" didn't make a distinction, but
>> http://www.botanyworld.com/phaseolus.html is one link that does.
>>
>> It wouldn't surprise me if some unscrupulous farmers passed off
>> plain old lima beans as butter beans (or vice versa) to unsuspecting
>> canners :-)
>>
>> I grew some lima beans in my garden this summer, they were delicious
>> raw (tasted very much like peas). They were so much better than the
>> frozen ones when cooked I couldn't believe it.
>>
>> I also learned in my googling that wild lima beans (well, wild
>> "phaseolus lunatus" and possibly other variants) can be poisonous
>> until cooked.
>>
>> ScottR
>> --
>> Scott Robins
>>
>
> Thanks, Scott. That's interesting info. I've always wondered how
> people figured out what they could eat and what they couldn't. I saw
> a facinating documentary on mushrooms. The guy went out into the
> woods and pointed out the "good" ones and the "bad" ones and told
> why. But somebody had to eat them to find out which was which. geez.
> I wouldn't have wanted to have
> been in that lottery!
>
> Elaine, too

I can only figure out some of this. I suspect "man" learned from watching
animals and sea-birds. Why else would anyone think of eating raw oysters?!
They certainly don't LOOK good.

Jill