--August 1996
We vegetable gardeners have long considered green beans an indispensable part of summer
growing, as necessary as tomatoes, and as a fresh, tasty alternative to canned or frozen beans.
Yet, to some, green beans, particularly bush beans, seem to lack that old-fashioned beany flavor. In extremely hot, dry weather they can get papery and stringy. Besides, you can get pretty good green beans cheap at any farmer's market, or even at the Giant.
Now there are French filet beans. Rather, now we are discovering them. The French call them haricot verts. I call them incredible. They are more slender, a little shorter, entirely stringless, and more flavorful than ordinary bush green beans.
I tried them last year for the first time, planting what Burpee (Warminster, PA 18974) calls only French filet beans, although there are several varieties. Burpee also has one other variety called Triumph de Farcy.
The other good thing is that they can be planted early in May and do not take long to reach picking stage--eight weeks, more or less. With succession plantings, they could be available most of the summer. However, the Burpee variety did mature very quickly, so I was swamped with beans for a relatively short period. My neighbors didn't mind.
This year I planted a variety called Finaud, from Cook's Garden (P.O. Box 535, Londonderry, VT 05148), because the catalog promised that they would "hold much longer at the 4 to 6 inch long stage." And this has been my experience.
One pack of seeds will plant a 15- to 20-foot row, probably enough for a family of four for a few weeks or more. The seeds will come up spottily; but don't worry; the eventual plants will all begin maturing together To prepare these beans, just snap off the tiny ends, wash, and steam or boil them for just ten or twelve minutes, to have them al dente. (The texture of these beans is precisely what we hope for in green beans--tender, but never mushy or fibrous.) Add a dab of butter or olive oil and a little salt and white pepper to serve hot. Or let them cool and serve as part of a cold summer salad. Magnifique!
Now, French filet beans may not be suited to the leisure gardener because they are so prolific and are best when be picked every other day. And they don't can or freeze well. So why grow them? For the sheer pleasure of extraordinary flavor and because you may not find them anywhere else.
--Pierre Van Egmond, MG
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