re: Butter beans versus Lima beans

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Baby green limas are called just that: baby green limas.

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These were always butterbeans to me. I grow them and they are very finicky plants and hard to grow. Just a slight temperature change or rain will make them lose blooms.

I pick them small and shell (or bring to a sheller) and cook with bacon or salt pork. If they stay on the vine they will dry and that is what is bought in the stores as dry beans.

If you want to try something good, cook a batch with bacon then drain, add to food processor with a bit of tahini, salt and pepper. Garlic if you like but I prefer not on this. Blend and make a butterbean hummus. Then cook a few strips of bacon on a rack in the oven, cool and break up into the hummus. The butterbeans make a really light hummus as opposed to the denseness of a chick pea.

I could eat butterbeans or even lima beans every day. And I will add a bit of butter at the end just to hedge my bet.

Great thread. I just had a bushel of speckled beans shelled.

ETA: forgot to say add a bit of lemon juice and a bit of lemon zest to hummus and if needed a drizzle of olive oil.