Butter Beans

I and my baby brother grew up with all of our cousins on a stretch of a land called Looneyville.  My mother’s father, Bob Looney (Paw) and our grandmother Emma (Granny) had bought the land when our parents were young. When they were older and married my mother and each of my aunts and uncles got a portion of the land for their own this resulted in the creation of Looneyville.

(Me, my brother and all my cousins with my Paw
and Granny Looney) 

Looneyville was a wonderful place to grow up at in the 1960’s and 70’s. It had lots of wide open pasture land, a lake for swimming and pond for fishing. I and my cousins roamed free from house to house playing with each other, spending the night with each other and answering to our aunts and uncles as though they were our parents.  We were not rich people but we were blessed and happy.

Every year when the summer school break rolled around it meant two things for me and my cousins---we would have lots of garden work and if we finished our work we would get to go swimming in Paw’s lake. Garden work was a community affair we all helped each other hoe, weed, gather, shell, string, shuck and put up the goods gathered from each other’s gardens.

 I remember sitting on my Granny’s porch with buckets full of beans and a bowl in my lap. My favorite bean to shell was the speckled butter bean. I loved opening it up and seeing the unique multi-colored tapestry of purple, blue and cream each bean would have. No two beans were ever the same color pattern. But it always amazed and disappointed me that when we would cook these beautiful unique colored beans they would lose their one of a kind beauty and turn into one common uniform brown color.

I think back now I know without doubt my life in Looneyville was my training field for raising a blended family.  We were like a big bowl of speckled butter beans all bunched together each of us unique and special in our own way but we learned to live, work and play together as one big delicious pot of seasoned brown beans where everybody helped each other.

If you are like me you want to make life easier for your children because you may feel guilty for your own mistakes or the mistakes of an absent parent. We over compensate in giving and filling their lives with dance, ball practice and activities so there is no time for them to give, no time for them to serve. 

Uniqueness is important but a lot can be said for learning to serve and giving to others.  When we dwell on just encouraging our children to be “one of a kind” and we fail to also teach them to serve others we end up with a unique beautiful but hard butter bean with no taste.  When we teach them to serve and put others first they have a wonderful flavor and can be used to feed others.

I have included my recipe for Speckled Butter Beans and Lime Lima Beans. I hope you like my version.

 Speckled Butter Beans

1 (32oz) package Fresh Frozen Food Speckled Butter Beans

1       Tsp. canola oil

1       Tbsp. Lawry Red Pepper Seasoning Salt

Salt and Pepper to taste

Place speckled butter beans in pan. Cover with sufficient amount of boiling water and bring to a boil. Add canola oil, reduce heat and cover with lid and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add Red Pepper Seasoning Salt and let simmer 10 – 20 more minutes or until beans are tender.

Lime Lima Beans

 Spray Oil

 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

 1 Tbsp Tones Lime Pepper Seasoning

 1 1/2 cups chicken broth

 1 (16 ounce) package frozen baby lima beans

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat, and spray with cooking spray. Saute onions until soft and translucent. Pour in chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Add lima beans, lime pepper seasoning and enough water just to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until beans are tender.