When I was a child, a few times each year my mother would serve pale green, starchy lima beans as a side dish at dinner. Oh, how my siblings and I dreaded those awful things! The flavor, texture, smell--YUCK! When I saw these beans on Mary's website I was dubious but decided that it could be a healing experience. Well . . . the deck was stacked against those beans. First of all, I planted them rather late (maybe July) and secondly I planted them with my luffa vines which had just started to gain steam. Within a few weeks of planting I shook my head and figured they'd never be able to compete with those gourd vines. But lo and behold, pretty late into autumn I started to notice the huge dried pods. I ended up with almost a quart of the most beautiful, rich and delicious beans I've ever tasted. They taste like buttered chestnuts. I served them on Christmas Day and everybody LOVED them. I really should post the link to the recipe I used because it was super easy and really let the flavor and creamy texture of the beans shine. Here's what I'm going to do at planting time: set an old bicycle wheel (I trash-picked a couple recently) on top of a pole, run rope down from the wheel to the ground and plant the whole contraption with Christmas Lima Beans. I think I owe that to them . . . and to myself!
