First Lima Harvest

I was tickled to be able to harvest my first lima beans today. I've never had success with them before. I think that the farm is too cool for successful lima bean growing. Oh the plants grow just fine, but they don't produce much in the way of lima beans. It was frustrating.

Today I picked enough limas in the green shell stage for a taste test. Green shell is when the pods were still turgid but had changed to a lighter color. They were mature. If I left them on the vine, the next step would have been for the pods to dry down. I'll try cooking the beans tonight and see how they are. 

Three beans in each pod. Some pods have more. 

These beans are very pretty. So I might continue to grow them simply because they are beautiful. A crazy reason I know, but what the heck. 

I plan to allow enough beans to mature for seed saving, perhaps a pound. Then we will eat the rest. A pound of lima beans is more seed than I need, but I plan to share some with a friend living in a hotter area. I'm curious if she would be more successful than I in growing them outdoors. 

Oh, I forgot to mention. These are Succotash Limas that I got from Baker Creek seed company.