I have made no secret of my love of growing strange and unusual vegetables. Among the things we are growing this year that I can’t get at the grocery store are Irish Cobbler potatoes, bride eggplants and purple bush beans. We have harvested several rounds of beans already. The variety we planted are Royalty Purple Pod Bush Beans:
I have been referring to them as Mad Hatter beans, because they are really the most amazing shade of purple which the photograph does not do justice. We have found that they are easier to pick than our standard green beans, and given that we can get green beans at the store, as soon as we finish up the old green bean seeds we’re going to switch to Royalty Purple for bush beans going forward.
They turn a dark green when cooked, despite our best attempts to keep them purple. So far we’ve tried putting baking soda in the water as well as vinegar. Neither has worked. But the beans are certainly tasty.