From the Garden: Of Bushel, Butter and Lima Beans

This we took down the bean trellis and harvested the last of the butter beans this week, one of the finest products of the fall garden and a fitting end to the summer season.

 

Originally known to Virginia colonists as Bushel or Sugar beans they are more commonly known today as Butter or Lima beans. The difference between the two depends on with whom you speak with.

My family’s interpretation is that the Butter bean is a small, sweet bean while the Lima is a larger, starchier bean. There are many who would say that they are simply the same bean harvested in different stages of maturity.

The Lima and/or Butter bean were apparently domesticated in two separate locations from the original specimen, thought by botanists to be Phaseolus. lunatus var. sylvester. The larger form was domesticated in South America some time before 6000 BCE while the smaller was domesticated somewhat later in Mesoamerica. This smaller, more heat-tolerant variety is often referred to as the Sieva bean.

The larger Lima bean received its name because it was first encountered by thebean received its name because it was first encountered by the English in the Peruvian town of that name.

Whether you call it a Butter bean or a Lima bean it is a warm season legume that requires a long hot season to mature. They were a rarity to Mr. Washington who wrote to William Pearce in April of 1794, “With this letter you will receive a paper of Lima beans, which the Gardener will plant the first of May, separate from any others; and be particularly careful of them.”

We grow a white seeded variety known to Mr. Jefferson as the White Carolina which he recorded planting in his garden, also in 1794. It is a pole bean that will make a prodigious growth and entirely cover a twelve foot trellis by the end of the season.

The early harvest is made from ladders while the final, and largest, harvest is made when the entire plant is taken down from the trellis. Whether consumed alone or in a succotash there are considered by many to be the greatest luxury of the Phaseolus tribe.