When it comes to beans, there are so many varieties it will make your head spin.
Bush, pole, spotted, striped, green, red, yellow, black, white, and variations in between. This year we tried a bean known as yardlong bean, Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis. It also goes by the name of longpodded-cowpea or asparagus, bodi, long or snake bean.
I found this bean actually looking for a gourd known as snake gourd. It’s an Indian species called chichinda. We are growing both this year and I’m very happy I came across the bean as well!
Inevitably each summer beans come on faster than we can harvest, eat and/or put them away.
Each season we end up eating some green beans that are too mature – this means harder, larger beans in the middle with a tough pod. Not great no matter how you slice them!
Bean growing up the okra stalk
As the yardlong beans come on this year, we are eating them in varying stages of maturity.
They were trellising on the burgundy okra before I realized they were even setting fruit so the first ones we tried were a bit mature. They were delicious! One thing I am really enjoying about these beans is being able to comfortably eat them at any stage of their growth.
Another thing I really like is that the beans are very easy to harvest.
Because they are so long, each bean you cut (usually I cut two off of the plant at a time as two pods grow next to each other) equals at least 6 regular beans. It makes for a much faster harvest time.
When they get to the kitchen it’s faster processing as well.
I simply take all of the beans and put them together in a bundle, bend them in half, cut the bend and start chopping them up. The long bean easily stays in my hand as I chop. Instead of chopping a few regular beans at a time, I am able to chop up 8 yardlongs bent in half in as much time resulting in a meal’s worth of beans.
A bundle of yardlong beans bent in half and cut
Very easy to hold onto and you can cut a good amount at once
Just takes about 10 seconds to chop
Things that I can harvest quickly and easily process in the kitchen are winners around here.
We prepare a lot of homegrown food – in fact most meals this time of year are directly from the garden (and freezer in the case of meats) so ease of prep is a desirable trait. Because each bean only has one attachment point to the main plant, there aren’t as many stems to remove either. It’s awesome!
I’m not sure why I hadn’t heard anyone sing the wonders of yardlong beans in the past, but I’m glad to be growing them now.
We have a purple variety and it retains its color when cooked making for beautifully colorful meals (along with the burgundy okra we are ingesting a lot of purple!). I find them delicious when they are young and thin as well as yummy when they get thicker and the beans mature. If the shells are too old, it is easy to slip the more mature beans into the pot. I think at this stage they resemble a northern white bean in texture, appearance and taste (cook time is fast and adds some nice protein).
This year in growing the yardlongs we are “staying on top of” our bean harvest, enjoying faster prep time in the kitchen and delicious homegrown meals. We will be saving these seeds and growing them again!
Originally posted on our blog https://ozarkmountainjewel.com/growing-yardlong-beans-easy-gardening-success/
I have never seen these before. I have some beans in the garden of different sorts but they aren't giving beans.
Yours are beautiful!
thanks! yes, we are very happy with them. the seeds are easy to find - we got them off of ebay. our first year growing them.
These beans look really beautiful and delicious. And the images you took do their part in telling their story.
This post would have been perfect for the #naturalmedicine tag, to earn some additional juicy LOTUS tokens.
thanks @flauwy! can i edit it after the fact?
I think you can but votes like my own probably don't count anymore for it. We have many Abundance Tribe members who own large stakes in LOTUS, so you should get some notable rewards in the future.
cool! good to know. i've been out of the space for a while so i'm definitely out of touch with what's going on! so many new things to explore...
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These are sooooo common in Asia and yes, they grow to a yard long. Here in Thailand the red ones are grown mostly by the mountain people - the beans inside are dried and the pods used for pig food, cos they're tough when fully grown. The green long beans stay more tender and we eat those all year round here - very much a stir-fry staple. 😍
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Thanks for passing on the local customs!! These red ones are for mountain folk and their pigs _ love it!! I will try to get some nice green ones next then 💚🙏🏼
Great to see another bean grower! A friend had given me some mysterious beans a while back and I planted some in an attempt to identify them. One turned out to be a yard long bean. I could only tell once I saw the pods growing nonstop.
oh that's cool! mystery bean :) happy growing!
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