In my younger days I knew that beans [beanz] means Heinz because of the advertising they got on radio . We also had the lovely moral story of “Jack and The Beanstalk “which is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Beanstalk" in 1807 [so Wikipedia tells me] We all remember the many versions of the Giant, Jack and his mother, the beanstalk, the exploits of the harp, and the hen that lays the golden egg.
It is good for body, soul and mind to recall such lovely happy childhood memories. Is mór an chúis áthais domhsa dul ar ais ar bhóithrín na smaointe.
We grew broad beans [pónairí leathan] every year in our garden at home and I just loved them. I ate them raw straight off the plant as soon as they were ripe. I just loved opening the pod and removing the beans from their cosy velvety growing chambers and chomped my way through a couple of pods. Then I continued to pick and open more of them, placing the beans in a bowl and bringing them in home to boil for a few minutes until they shed their grey cosy casing, and a lovely green bean emerged. We just put them back in the pot with a good knob of butter and ate them. They were delicious and were so good for our health, keeping our blood sugar levels and our cholesterol levels low or so my parents told me.
There is a well-known rhyme that we all learned at an early stage of our lives, and it goes as follows ‘Baked beans are good for your heart. The more you eat them the more you fart. The more you fart the more you feel. So have your beans with every meal.
Then of course we have the very popular green runner beans [pónairí glas] which have become very popular on home and restaurant menus in recent years. They are a very easy vegetable to grow in your back garden and very easy to cook. You just top and tail them and pop them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes and hey presto you have a feast of green vegetables. Let's not forget the yummy beans on toast.They are also very nutritious.
The humble bean has also made its way into the fitness lexicon. When people are fit and lively, I have often heard ‘By God you are full of beans today’ and in Irish “Tá sé chomh héasca le gealbhan” which literally translated means as lively as a swallow.
The bean has been with us a long time since Christopher Columbus, who discovered America in 1492 brought it back to us from The New World in 1528. History tells us that the bean originated in Peru 8000 years ago.
Nowadays you can buy a whole range of beans in tins including the very tasty kidney bean [pónaire dhuánach] so called because of its shapely resemblance to a human kidney, which is a very versatile one for salads and adds great russet colour and flavour.
The French bean [Pónaire fhrancach] is another great favourite of mine.
For the real health-conscious people and bean aficionados there are some mouth-watering bean recipes to whet the appetite. You can readily access these on the internet.
Top of my list is the very tasty 3 bean salad which is made with fresh green beans, topped and tailed, can of cannellini or other white beans, drained and rinsed, can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed, chopped celery, chopped red onion, chopped parsley, mozzarella cheese and avocado. You can make some homemade dressing using olive oil, Balsamic vinegar and crushed garlic cloves. and voila you have a whole nutritious meal and all prepped in a quarter of an hour.
One piece of advice is not to eat too much as it can be hard on the tummy.
Just google three bean salad and your options list is endless. Go on be brave, try it today.
You can finish off your meal by grinding some coffee beans from Kenya, Ethiopia, Columbia, Nicaragua or some other exotic coffee producing country and enjoy the best of ground coffee beans with a double chocolate black bean cookie. Yes, beans still mean Heinz but lots more as well. Bain taitneamh astu uilig.
Mick O Callaghan. 25/08/2024 Slán go fóill
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