Do you garden? The first of my green beans are starting to appear. The vines have already grown up the bamboo trellis that lines the side yard fence, and have reached up and over the fence, meaning my neighbor may get as many beans from my plants as I do. I never know how the beans are going to cook up, even if they are from my own garden. The most important thing to look for when choosing beans at the market is that they snap when you bend them, versus bending like a rubber band. This means they’re fresh. But even if they are fresh, they may still take forever to cook. I had garden beans last year that still weren’t tender after 20 minutes of boiling. I finally gave up. Ideally, young, fresh green beans should be just cooked after a minute or two. Cooked, but crisp. (If you find yourself with a batch of green beans that are tough and old, and refusing to become tender, save them for cooking in a soup.)

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