Purple Bean Blossoms

Very early this morning, my faithful dog Spot (aka: Noah) and I went out to the garden to putter about. I took my camera with me because it is such a beautiful morning and I've been wanting to take pictures of the purple bean blossoms.

Do you know why these are Purple Bean Blossoms and not the usual pretty white bean blossoms? Because these are Burgundy beans. AND, they are magical beans! Trust me and follow my story and you'll see what makes them magical.
Aren't they pretty?

And purple bean blossoms means purple beans grow!

This is a white bean blossom (DUH! You can see that, eh?!) White blossoms mean green beans will grow.

See? White blossoms = green beans. Purple blossoms = purple beans. Stay with me now. There is a point to this essay on purple vs. white bean blossoms.

Back in the spring I had planted all of my beans (green beans with white blossoms). They were beginning to come up great. One day, my faithful dog Spot (Noah) and his big brother Ruffus (aka Gabe) decided to do some plowing in my garden. My garden IS fenced but Spot (aka Noah) and Ruffus (aka Gabe) can jump fences with amazing elegance...much like they have a bit of equestrian blood in them. This dog plowing took place over half of my rows of beans and some of my broccoli plants. Consequently, I had to replant and hope they'd still come up. But alas, I could not find one single package of bean seeds ANYWHERE! Seriously, they were all sold out. Sold out, that is, except this one last package of burgundy beans. The package says that they will turn green when they are blanched. HMMmmmmmm, I thought. Sounds like they are trying to sell me Jack and the Beanstalk magic beans. But since I really wanted to replace the damaged plants, I bought this packet of beans and decided to give them a go.

So this morning, after admiring the bean blossoms I realized that FINALLY the beans are coming on the vine and I picked the first handful and took them inside to see if they really are the magical beans the package promised. I washed them and trimmed the ends...

...and then I blanched them for just a minute in boiling water. See the beans going in the water as purple (burgundy) beans?

And suddenly (and I mean SUD-DEN-LY!!!) they turned from purple to green. VOILA! There you go! Just like magic! Green beans!

I plunged them in ice water and then...

...drained them. They are ready to either eat now or freeze for later use.

Isn't this the most amazing story you've read this morning? *snort* *smirk* *wink*

I thought it was awesome.

By the way, did you know that there is a town in Indiana called Bean Blossom? Yes there is! I wonder if they grow magic beans in Bean Blossom, Indiana? I'll have to find out.

Until next time,
Cheers!

Jennifer