Twenty Bag | Sep 10

In the Sep 10 Twenty Bag: Vine ripe tomatoes, belle peppers, and green onions from Tendwell Farms, NC, potato mix, honeycrisp apples from Lively Orchards/Barnwell Farms, long beans, Japanese eggplant, cucumbers.

Thank you Harleston Towles and Rooting Down Farms!

While long beans resemble string beans and they’re both legumes, the Asian Yardlong Bean is part of a subspecies of field peas. And their mild flavor is a bit sweeter than that of the string bean.

“Though yardlong beans taste similar to green beans, their texture is distinct,” says Chichi Wang in his Serious Eats writeup. “Unlike green beans, which can taste palatable steamed or boiled, yardlong beans become waterlogged and bland when treated with water. The beans are best cooked with oil: sauteed, stir-fried, or deep-fried, their flavor intensifies and their texture remains tight and juicy. As such, these beans aren't exactly the diet vegetable of the summer, but they are extremely good to eat and their texture makes them worth seeking out.”

Try them sheet pan roasted in good olive and tossed with Kosher salt and a grind of pepper. They’re amazing prepped this way and a bit of sheet pan char lends them some extra character.

A quick search of sweetgrass + grits will take you to plenty more recipes—all curated with an eye toward the weekly Twenty Bag harvest.

Harleston’s storage tips: If greens or herbs of any kind begin to wilt at any point or at pick up, put them in a big bowl of ice water for 20-30 minutes.  Almost all produce is washed and should go in the refrigerator. Potatoes in a cool, DARK place.  Light will cause them to turn green if not used right away.  Tomatoes on the counter.  Apples in the fridge in their bag.  Beans, onions, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers in the fridge in a plastic bag.