Yard long beans

What’s your opinion on these yard long beans? Are they as good as snap beans? From what I have read they should do well in my climate zone. I am really curious about how they taste so please do comment.
Oldude

http://www.kitazawaseed.com/seeds_yard_long_bean.html

They are good. Critter sent me some a couple of years ago. Also, Kitazawa is one of my favorite seed companies.

I am growing them for the first time this year. It will be interesting! :)

Depends on your taste buds. If you eat snaps ( tender cowpea pods in green shell cowpeas) that will be a good indicator. The Yardlong is a subspecies of cowpea. I don't care for them as a substitute for green snap beans, but like them in stir fries and chinese dishes.

I grew them last year and am growing more of them this year. They don't taste like regular green beans, they have a mild flavor. We use them in stir fry, sometimes I just saute some in butter with a little salt and pepper and we use them a lot in soups. I don't care for green beans, but these I really like. The ones I grew last year just kept on making beans for months and months, they're so long that it doesn't take very many to make a serving. 8 pods makes a "mess o' beans". Also am trying asparagus beans and red noodle beans this year since the yard longs did so well. They were more resistant to spider mites than the Bountiful Bush Beans I tried to grow.


This message was edited May 22, 2009 10:10 PM

Thanks all for your comments.
Looks like they are worthy of a trial planting. Sauté in butter with a little salt and pepper is also the way that I like them. Not healthy but I like them with a little bacon, onions or ham hocks.
Oldude

Oldude, easy on the butter, bacon and ham hocks...we want to be a really really old dude!

How old, kanita? I had a great uncle, and several uncles make it to 96, 95, and 94 on a diet of lard, salt pork and whatever else they could get their hands on. One smoked, the others chewed. Active until they died. I visit nursing homes where people , much younger than I ate approved diets and took all kinds of health food supplements are virtually helpless. Longevity has its place, but I think we try to maintain too much control over it.

I think people lived longer because they did more physical labor and they led much less stressful lives than we do now. JMHO.

I agree with longevity being related to physical labor. We have a man here in town who is going on 101. He runs a ten acre daylily farm and is out there very day working. He has adjoining property he plants pumkins on. I saw him the other day running the tractor. He still drives a pickup truck too. He's amazing. :) He calls himself the Daylily King.

Hey Farmerdill!

I consider old old to be over 100! And given that many of my family member in Central America are that old and above, I believe age is a total state of mind and body and not just a number. But, you know the world has many of us, or at least me so paranoid about everything we eat having the power to kill us. I used to drive my great grandmother nuts trying to snatch the salt away from her at every turn. Unfortunately, she wasn't as lucky as your uncles, she died young 74 with high blood pressure and diabetes. However, she was not active like you mentioned. She lived a very sedentary life. I never made that connection till now. Thank you.

Since you are a couple of years older than me and know wayyy more than I do, I will learn to chill out a little.

kanita

My Mom's GF lived to be 102. He kept a garden that fed 14 people right up until he died. He was in perfect health and one day he decided he did not want to live anymore. Said there was nobody left his age. He went to bed and 2 weeks later he died. The doctor said his mind gave up and took his body with it.

Wow! And my friends my age say that gardening isn't really exercise that benefits the body.

kanita -

Well I've lost seven pounds without trying since the weather warmed up this spring and the only thing I've done differently is work in the garden! At the beginning of the spring season, I couldn't lift a bag of potting soil, now I can throw 'em around with no trouble.

Hopefully I'll lose a little more over the next few months. Will probably gain it all back again during next winter waiting for spring of 2010 - and the cycle continues :)

I agree Honeybee, but when my friends ask if I worked out, and I tell them I spent 3 hours digging beds and hauling compost, they say thats not real exercise. I know it is because I am so sore afterwards....lol.

I always thought people who did their own gardening and growing lived long lives because of what they grew and ate, not from the work they did in order to grow their own food.

I think gardeners are healthier also because of the peace and satisfaction you get from the work. It lowers your BP.