Beans Beans Beautiful Fruit

O.k. Let's start with what I'd eat today, if there were any to be found - fresh beans! I love beans. I think they have lovely flowers. They are easy to pick and quick to cook. Plus they taste fantastic.

My favorite varieties: Dragon Langerie, Emerite

Dragon Langerie (Dragon Beans) OP

• This is a flat, yellow podded bush bean that has purple stripes. They are very pretty, although the purple color dissappears when you cook them.The pods are long, around 8" and are easy to see in the green foliage. I love these mild, sweet beans lightly steamed with a little butter and salt. A link to their picture: http://www.vermontbean.com/dp.asp?c=13&P={CE830ABC-AE15-41D5-8E42-14DDCA0A319C}
  

Emerite OP

• Emerite is a French filet pole bean...basically one that can be eaten as a tiny baby vegetable or allowed to grow to regular sized beans. These are slow to produce seeds, which is nice if you happen miss a few when you are picking. The vines are very productive and will climb to the top of 6' trellis and then some! I use nylon trellis netting for my beans - it has 7" squares and makes picking them very easy. Here's a picture: http://www.vermontbean.com/dp.asp?c=8&P={47621494-6DC1-4BBB-9142-81A9470F07B9}
  

Other varieties I have tried:

• Pencil Pod Wax - I like this one. It's a good yellow wax bush bean. I just like Dragon beans better so I don't grow it anymore.
• Romano Green Pole Bean - Didn't have time to mature in my garden, but the vines were covered with blossoms.
• Purple Trionfo Violetto - Purple pole bean. These were very good beans, but I should have pulled out the sunflowers that grew up in front of them a little sooner. The flowers were just so pretty... I'll try these again, minus the competition!
  
• Red Noodle Beans - Yard-long beans in a bright red-violet. Cowboy tried growing these last year. We didn't harvest a single bean, but they did produce hundreds of fuzzy white caterpillars. Cowboy liked them better than beans anyway. Turns out that the caterpillars were eating all of the blossoms. My mom grew some...the beans were pretty, but she thought they tasted gross and gave them all away. I'll trust her. She knows a good bean when she tastes one! Here's a picture if you are curious: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/7223/s
  

I've never used the rhizobium innoculant that the garden centers sell for legumes. I seem to have plenty of beans, but may consider giving it a try sometime. If you've used it, did you notice any difference?