Annie's Rainbow Beans

They are beautiful, aren't they? Oh, but you should taste them sauteed with ham!! These are Annie's Rainbow beans, a combination of Contender, Golden Wax, Royal Burgundy, and Dragon's Tongue. I bought all of my seeds from Annie's Heirloom Seeds. (They don't know of this blog, I have no affiliation with them other than I purchase my seeds from them.) One of the things I like about their website is there are collections such as these beans and that makes it easier to experiment with different varieties. In the collections the individual varieties of seeds are packaged separately so they aren't all mixed together leaving you guessing. (At least that it true with the tomatoes, the beans may have come in one package. You can tell the beans apart, the varieties look different.) 

These beans are my current favorite thing in the garden, and they were a surprise. I thought I was planting a mix of pole beans and I put them at the base of one of my tee pees. It turns out they are bush beans and the mistake was mine. I didn't read the package well. So these are the pole beans that aren't. The flowers are sure pretty.

I can eat the beans uncooked right out in the garden, crisp and flavorful, but here's one of our favorite quick meals...

Add a little butter into a saute pan, add the beans and stir fry them for a few minutes, then add small pieces of ham and heat until the ham is slightly brown. Prepared this way, the beans are lightly cooked and still a bit crunchy, just the way I like them. YUM!

Sometimes the best things are unintentional. We are loving these bush beans so much that I am planting more every three weeks so we can have a continual supply throughout the summer!