Proactive Advice for the Chard and Beans Coming This Week

I heard that chard and beans--lots of beans--are on the list for produce pickup this week. Be prepared! In recent weeks, we've had a lot of squash and basil, and we've tried to provide lots of good uses for both. Now it's time to deal with lots of fresh chard and beans--this is a good thing, if you are prepared!

Chard--and other cooking greens--are easy to deal with, I think. You can wash them and chop them up and put them in soup or a quiche, but one of the best ways is to just cook them as southern greens. A lot of greens cook down to not so much pretty quickly, so even if it looks like you have a ton of greens, you will likely have a meal's worth after cooking, but they make a side dish that is not just tasty but also really good for you (well, except for the bacon grease).

That's what I do, cook a few pieces of bacon (4 or 5 are plenty), then pour off the grease (a few tablespoons) into a big pot. Meanwhile, prepare the greens by washing them and cutting them off the tough stems and then chopping them coarsely. Heat up that bacon grease and throw in the greens, still wet from washing (that's enough water to help cook them). Cook over medium heat until they are wilted--15 or 20 minutes is plenty--then add a dollop of vinegar (your choice, I use cider, about two tablespoons to a pot of greens) and crumble the bacon and throw it in. Let it cook a minute or two longer to warm up the vinegar, and then serve. Totally delicious.

If we get as many beans as I'm expecting this week, you can blanche and freeze them to eat at your leisure. First, you need a kid to snap the beans. It's been kids' work since the dawn of time, no reason to change that now. Then take the beans and put them, in batches, into boiling water for one minute. Remove from boiling water into a big bowl of ice. When they've cooled down, put them in freezer bags and pop them into the freezer. That's all you need to do to have fresh local beans for months to come.