A Great Choice for Any Garden, Big or Small

Green beans are almost here! We love our green beans because they are versatile and nutritious. You can bake them in casseroles, saute them, roast them, or even munch on them raw for a snack. They make a good side for any dish, and, since they can be stored frozen or canned, you can enjoy market-quality beans all year long!

When purchasing green beans at the market, look for smooth, firm, unblemished beans for maximum quality and freshness.

Green beans are also one of the most popular vegetables grown in home gardens, so if you have a green thumb, be sure to keep an eye out for them at our plant vendors. The two main green bean varieties to keep in mind when deciding what to plant in your garden are pole beans and bush beans. Pole beans grow best on tall trellises, so they may be best if your garden has a small square footage, but plenty of room for plants to grow upward. They also produce beans throughout the growing season, which means you can have garden-fresh beans all season long. Bush beans take up more ground space, but are preferred by commercial growers because they produce all of their beans at once, speeding up the harvesting process. They also work well for at-home container gardening. You can experiment with both, and pick your favorite!

Portland Nursery has a great overview on how to grow beans here.

Learn more about our bean vendors here to see who will be at your favorite Hillsboro Farmers’ Markets location!

Storing Green Beans:

Fresh:

Store them in the refrigerator crisper unwashed in an airtight container.

Frozen:

Wash, drain, and cut off both ends of all of the beans. If you want, you can cut them in half to make them shorter.

Blanch them by adding them to rapidly boiling water for three minutes, then drain them and let them sit in ice water for three minutes.

Let drain in a colander.

Freeze the beans by either laying them out individually on a baking sheet and then transferring them to a storage container, or transfer them to the freezer in a storage container immediately (tip: freezing them individually before adding them to the container prevents the beans from clumping together when frozen).

Canned:

Healthy Canning has a great in-depth article on the process of canning green beans (safely!) here.

Buttery Garlic Green Beans

Recipe adapted from Look Whats Cooking

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh green beans trimmed and cut in half

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 3 cloves of minced garlic

• Salt to taste

• Pepper to taste

Preparation

Put green beans in a large skillet and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the beans start to soften.

Drain the beans and return them to the skillet with the butter, cooking and stirring until the butter has melted.

Add the garlic and cook and stir for 3-4 minutes, until the garlic is tender and fragrant. Season with salt and pepper to taste.