It’s possible that we may have gotten a teensy bit carried away planting snake beans this year…
The initial plants were showing signs of rust virus, so we didn’t weed any of the seedlings out, hoping that some of them would soldier on and survive.
They all survived.
And then they all flowered with these beautiful, orchid-like purple blooms…
For a couple of weeks, we joyously harvested this many snake beans every day. I’m not complaining, because they’re my all-time most favourite vegetable in the whole world…
I blanched and froze packets of them in the freezer – enough for ten future family dinners…
…and we’ve been adding them to every single meal. Here’s my favourite way to prepare them – stir-fried in oyster sauce and garlic…
Finally, this gorgeous sunflower is growing in amongst the beans – self-sown from fallen chook feed!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
My snake beans don’t get the purple in the flower, just creamy white. I am going to try the oyster sauce and garlic.
Beautiful photos, Celia! Am looking forward to the arrival of spring here, but I know I’ve a ways to go til that happens!! Meanwhile I shall enjoy hearing about your lovely garden!
Your bean tower looks gorgeous! So many beans! Sunflowers look beautiful too.
I can a lot of beans for winter use; saves on freezer space as I put up quite a few jars. They make great salads as well. My garden is still buried under snow for a few more months, but I am thinking of starting some transplants in the next month.
I love looking at your garden pictures. They often inspire me to try something new. Last year I grew tromboncinos for the first time!
I would be making Dilly Beans!
I agree Celia Snake Beans are the most delicious vegetable. We learned to enjoy them during our 6 years living in Darwin. They were available at the local markets, grown by the Asian women . We’d pick up our weekly hit of green paw paw salad, made fresh while you wait and grab a bundle of beans and other fresh greens for our stir fries. The fresh produce in the supermarkets was a very limp/stale alternative to the vibrant local produce from these women at the markets. Another delicious way to enjoy snake beans is to stir fry finely chopped onion till tender, then add the beans with equal quantities of chopped, skinned tomatoes, a good dollop of tomato paste when the tomatoes have cooked down, lots of black pepper to taste and maybe a spoon of butter at the end. Delicious as a side dish or just on its own with a bit of good bread to mop up the juices. Snake beans are also delicious pickled and served with salads and cold meats.
Only the other day I looked in our local shop that sells seeds to see if we can get these here for planting in the summer. No luck but I’m going to try online. What beautiful flowers they have too!
It’s cold and rainy here so thank you for the thought of warmer days ahead. I like my green beans finished off with a bit of soy sauce, brown sugar, chili flakes, garlic and ginger. Spicy! Hugs from Maz. :-)
The snake beans in the UK are imported from overseas, I do not know anyone who grows them here and ive never seen the seeds being sold, so I am real envious, they look superb draping in your garden.
Those are a real treat, I have an East Indian recipe I make them in and get them at an Asian market………..something about them, just great. Lucky you!!
Just remembered, they are called Yard Long beans here. Wonder if they are the same, will have to look them up!
Sorry, I just looked them up and they are the same and have a few other names also!
They’re very hardy in our humid climate and i too love the flowers. The sunflower seems to be saying ‘boo’!
I love those flowers! I love my beans stir fried with loads of garlic. I could eat beans for every meal if my family would let me!
I don’t think I ever tried snake beans til we moved to Shanghai – and then they were everywhere. Not that you are asking for recipes – but my favourite dish is this one with loads of Sichuan pepper to tingle your taste buds http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/sichuan-dry-fried-snake-beans
What a lovely haul of beans. Yes, they are the best.
OOOO, all of you ladies are SOOOO inspiring!!!!!!!! Where is my summer????? I just want to live where ever she is at all year long!!!!!!!!!! This grandmaw Hates winter! I am sooo going to try these this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK you guys – I saw Sandy mentioned “hood bread” to sop up the juices from the beans. I cannot find a recipe for hood bread anywhere over here in Us. What are you gals talking about?????
I believe Sandy meant to say “good bread”.. ;-)
We find that snake beans do not thaw out (a bit mushy) as well as ordinary snap beans. But love snake beans every way you can think of.
we love snake beans here Celia, usually made into a Thoran with or without small shrimps tossed in as well – delicious. But, since I buy those in the markets or on the road side I have never seen those gorgeous flowers. Thanks for showing – like your bean tower, btw. Carina
My favorite beans ..they are a staple here..cooked with garlic,oyster sauce and chilli as vegetable, eaten raw, with Grapow Moo/gai a chicken or pork stirfry or horapa moo which is a thai basil,with pork,beans, chillis and the requsite sauces for stir fry…love them :)
Snake beans remind me of my nonna, she used to grow them for me. I miss her.
There’s a dumpling place in Ashfield that serves this amazing fermented beans and pork mince recipe. My friend managed to work out how to make something resembling it. Apparently, it’s traditionally made with snake beans. It’s definitely worth a try if you have an excess.
Beans Amazingness:
Ferment* green or snake beans in 3% brine for a week at room temperature.
Serves 2 or 3.
1 tablespoon oil
1 tsp ginger
250g pork mince
2 1/2 cups diced fermented green or snake beans
4 spring onions, chopped
Sauce:
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
2 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar (I have used the fermenting liquid or balsamic, as I still haven’t bought any)
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes, or to taste
In a large pan, heat the oil over high heat. Add the pork and cook, stirring to break it up into small pieces, until lightly browned and no longer pink. Add the beans and white part of the spring onions and toss to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, until the beans are just tender, about 4 minutes. Add the green part of the spring onion and sauce and cook for 1 minute.
They serve it with small pancakes, but rice is also fine.
*I chop mine up first, but you can also ferment them in longer lengths. Put beans in a large glass jar. Boil a litre of water (removes chlorine) and add 30gm of non-iodised salt, stir to dissolve. Allow to cool to below 35C. Use enough of the cooled brine to cover the beans. The beans need to stay beneath the surface of the water. To achieve this, I fill a freezer bag with the rest of the brine (just in case the bag leaks), and put in on the top of the beans. Put lid loosely on jar. Allow to sit on bench for a week. It will bubble slowly, and the beans will change colour and the water will go cloudy. After a week, tighten lid and transfer to the fridge. Keeps for months in the fridge.
Wow, I love the way you prepared them. I’ve never grown snake beans but I do enjoy cooking them when someone else cooks them. Great photos, Celia.
There is something about their taste-texture, my favourite too. And they pick up other flavours so well. Must put a couple of plants in the vege patch.
Wow, those flowers, so beautiful. As are your sunflowers, love. Snake beans are the best, aren’t they. I must plant some next year in my tiny patch. xx
I have never tried these unusual beans but I have seen them at our higher end grocery stores. I love that you harvest so many that you can actually put them away. Sadly, my little city garden is not sunny enough for large scale planting and what I do plant in containers don’t really supply enough for anything. Hopefully one day I will have a garden to feed us.
Your long beans/snake beans are prolific. They do a red one, too called Red Noodle or something along the line. I wonder if the young shoots are edible or tasty?
They are so good aren’t they Celia? I am harvesting them daily also. They are so versatile and delicious. Your plants and beans look extremely healthy x
I haven’t come across ‘snake beans’ before. It looks like you may be sneaking around the neighbours at dead of night sharing if they keep producing at that rate though!
I’ve never come across snake beans before, need to find out if they’ll grow well here!
We eat a lot of beans as they are one of my faves (boo broccoli) but I fear this would be far too much for us! Love the little purple flowers – they look similar to creeping violets. I haven’t been commenting much lately because of outside concerns but I am still reading!