butter bean noun A small lima bean.
1949 Kurath Word Geog East US 73 Butter beans is a common expression for lima beans in all of the Southern area. Many people in this section differentiate between the large lima beans and the smaller butter beans. 1962 Wilson Folkways Mammoth Cave 14 The butter bean, a small, flat bean grown all over the South and called by many names, can be taken as a sort of test word for the region; to call it a Lima bean would still subject you to questioning as to where you live at, for Lima beans are fetch-on, either dried, as in former times, or frozen, as now.
—Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English
Over the last few years The Deer Hunter and I have fallen in love with growing butter beans.
Granny and Pap always liked them, but they never grew them that I can remember. Granny bought them or sometimes someone would give them a mess from their garden.
Our desire to grow butter beans came about after eating from a delicious pot of butter beans and peas over in Suches GA after playing at a church homecoming. Cooked butter beans are soft and creamy like butter.
The first ones we grew were sort of a yellowy tan color and they were good. We were hooked by the taste and after discovering butter beans come in a variety of beautiful colors I knew I would always want them in our garden.
Debbie from Bryson Farm Supply shared some colorful seed with us and a subscriber sent us some he said he’d been growing for many years.
We’re still learning about the best way to grow them. Like pole beans the ones we are growing need something to climb on, although there are bush varieties. This year we moved them to a sunnier location in the garden and that really helped the growth of the plants.
One tricky thing for us was figuring out when to harvest them. Having so much experience growing green beans caused us to feel like we needed to pick them as soon as the pods got to be a pretty good size. But that didn’t work out because the butter beans weren’t mature enough on the inside and even the ones that had some size to them were really hard to get out of the pod.
Earlier this year I asked folks to share advice on when to harvest butter beans.
Most folks said to wait till the beans were large enough to feel through the pods. Some folks said to wait till the pods begin to turn yellow. For the first harvest this year I did a little of both.
Some of the pods were dry and the beans were really easy to hull out. The ones that were beginning to turn a slight yellowish green were also easy to hull out.
Butter beans can be dried to use for later use or frozen or canned to preserve.
We’ve mostly eaten the ones we’ve grown fresh. I cook them in the same manner I would soup beans, although fresh butter beans cook up faster than dried beans. I wish the butter beans stayed those bright vibrant colors, but they don’t. After cooking they turn a tan color.
If you’re interested in growing colorful butter beans look for Christmas butter bean and speckled butter bean seeds.
If you have experience growing them please leave a comment and share your knowledge about the wonderful butter bean.
Last night’s video: Q&A with Granny 2.
Tipper
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A much loved aunt of mine who passed back in ’17, would always have a bowl of butter beans on the table for dinner AND supper, though she just called them “beans.” They were delicious and I finally found some dried ones at an Amish country store near where I used to live. I’ve buy, cook, and eat them very regularly as my own little tribute to Auntie J
I wanted to add that the butter beans we would get were typically small light green colored ones that would stay a light green when cooked; sometimes there were kinda pale beigey colored ones and on a few occasions she received some speckled butterbeans but mostly I remember her butterbeans and corn being light green bb’s and white corn kernels.
Little David Wilkins paid tribute to butterbeans with a song entitled “Butterbeans” It is funny and descriptive, you can find it on the internet or You Tube. You might also enjoy a song entitled Home Grown Tomatoes, don’t know the artist but the title search should get you the info. I am 86 years old and lived in west Tn all my life and enjoyed butterbeans all my life, especially like Henderson bush for out right eating. I usually use the Jackson Wonder in my stews. I am of the opinion that lima beans and butterbeans are two different varieties.
Thanks Tipper for all the work you put into the BP&A.
Your statement that cooked butter beans are tan confuses me. While I haven’t worked in a garden in more than 60 years, the butter beans my family grew – in various gardens – were all green when shelled and retained nearly the same color when cooked. It’s been far too long for me to remember the variety.
I’ve eaten tan colored beans. I learned to call them limas. I’ve also eaten large, green limas.
Tipper, I mentioned in my earlier comment you had flung a craving on me for some butter beans. I went to Ingles this morning and came by their deli, that had cooked butter beans on their menu for today. I bought me a large cup full to go along with our supper tonight. I bet they didn’t have any fatback in them when they were cooked so they won’t be quite as good as some cooked at home.
I read your description of butter beans and me being a born and bred southerner, butter beans and Lima beans ain’t the same. Butter peas are not butter beans either, they are green colored round seed. I remember Tipper posting and showing a picture of the beans she ate in Ga, they were green and round so my reason for saying they were butter peas.
i love butter beans of any kind!
Good morning Tipper – that picture looks like a bowl of beautiful stones from Katie’s shop – too pretty to eat for sure. I agree it would be wonderful if they would stay that color when cooked. But they are tasty no matter the color and a staple for me. Wishing you all a wonderful day!
I’ve been growing butter beans for decades, still I’m learning every year.
I pick them when the beans are large enough to almost fill the hull.
I’ve learned in recent years that butter beans don’t like 95 degrees. The blossoms will fall off and never form a pod. That’s what I had happen this year. The temperature got in the 90’s too soon. My butter beans have had blossums all summer but no pods. With the cooler temps the last couple of weeks i’ve just got my first good picking this week. We do love them, had some for supper last night.
I love them and the wife doesn’t. The last time I tried to grow them, was several years ago. always want pole variety to ease the back on picking. I think the variety was Ford Hook which was supposed to make a large bean. I had beautiful vines but not enough beans to make the seed back. It was a sign that I was not supposed to grow butter beans.
This years pole beans were supposed to be Blue Lake which we always plant. These are a round stringless bean but what we got were flat beans. I am not sure about the seed companies. I think they just package whatever they have the most of. 2 years ago our peaches and cream corn ended up tasteless field corn. When it started to silk they were red. we knew something was wrong then. Complain to the local seed store and you get no response. They wonder why we start ordering seeds on line.
We grew Lima beans this year and they ran and grabbed everything within several feet and weighted other garden plants down, we learned to pick them when they began to turn yellow, we also let some dry. Years ago I planted some and I don’t remember them running so bad but for these we grew this year they need to have something to run on. What a horrible mess in our garden.
Blessings to all
Tipper, I absolutely loved the Speckled Butter Bean that Mother cooked many years ago. I wish I would have saved the seed. It was a beautiful tan color with specks of Purple in it. Mother and Daddy grew it down south. When I was down south in N.E. MS, I found some frozen ones in the sav-a-lot store but that was years ago. I still remember it as the most beautiful and delicious butter bean I had ever tasted. I looked at all the colored beans your picture showed but did not see the butter bean I loved so maybe I will have to check out the seed catalog.
I enjoyed listening to Granny answering questions. My Mother had Rheumatic Fever too as a child and it damaged her heart. I had to learn to drive on a stick shift and I hated it, so as soon as I could I bought my own car and it was an automatic:)
My mom made the best Butter Beans I have ever tasted. As a child I would eat them up and ask for more. My mom stopped cooking them when us kids got grown and left home. She would make them by request when we all came in for a holiday dinners. She has been in heaven for 8 years now and I miss her dearly. I’ve tried Butter Beans when I see them out on a menu which isn’t often and they just don’t compare to my mom’s. I don’t try to make them because my husband doesn’t like them and if my husband didn’t like something well my daughter didn’t like it either. Once in a while I’ll buy myself a can of Butter Beans when I get a hankering for them, but even the canned ones don’t taste as good as my mom made them. I never knew they came in colors other than cream or yellowish color. Yours sure are pretty beans. Enjoy them!
We never grew butter beans, but I have sure shelled my share. It was really hard when some of the pods hadn’t filled out, but oh were they delicious!
In Richmond VA, their Butter Bean is the Henderson Bush Lima and it is light green. They come in around the first of July. You shell them up, slightly cover with water, salt, pepper and a hunk of butter. Cook about 6-8 minutes. Heaven and don’t miss the juice along with the beans – bean broth. I’ve tried to grow them in pots on my south deck in Vermont, but it’s just not hot enough. They malinger until early August and still not really a crop. I can only get a handful at a time and have to save up for a real serving. Beans, even green beans (I like Flageolets) are fussy germinators in our late May – early June weather. Even so, my south deck gets 12 hours of good sun, it’s just not enough for beans.
What does “fetch-on” mean?
beautiful butter beans, I’ve never seen that color, makes me think about Indian corn, God bless Granny Wilson
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten butter beans although I have heard of them. I don’t particularly care for the larger Lima beans but I would like to try butter beans. From what I’ve read here they sound tasty.
When I was 12 I went to see a relative in Portsmouth, VA and the 89 year old lady there served succotash with butter beans in it. I can’t say how they would taste to me now-especially with your high praise of them and pretty photos of the pretty beans, but at the time I saw and tasted succotash, it made me very sad and want to cry. I’m not a big fan of limas either. But hey, I’d try butter beans again if you made them, Tipper! Have a blessed day as the morning here in WV has me in a sweatshirt, sweats, heavy socks and a toboggan… brrrr and beans- any beans we can get our teeth in- are gonna be good-really good on a cold February day!!! Mommy used to say beggars can’t be choosers and if things decline much more , that’s where I could be. Have a blessed day y’all! Stay warm if you can!
I have no experience growing butter beans therefore I can’t leave a comment. Oh, well!
I’ve never grown any butter beans but I do love to eat them with fresh hot cornbread as others have mentioned.
The color on those beans really is pretty! My parents never grew butter beans that I can remember but sometimes someone would give them some from their garden and they were always so appreciative and excited to get them. Mama typically made butter beans and corn, especially when she had fresh corn and the bb’s. I think that was one of her specialties and I would agree there is a buttery creaminess to this dish. Once again, something Mama made that I have no idea how to recreate myself but it lives on in my mind as some of the very best eating there is, along with fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumbers & onions straight from (somebody’s) garden! I would love to learn to grow these myself and make butter beans and corn just like my Mama did! I will be on the lookout for these bean seeds. Thank you Tipper!
I love Butter beans growing up. The ones we ate were large tan ones.
Thanks for sharing!
That bowl of butter beans is colorful for sure!!! I had no idea that butter beans are so colorful. Those are beautiful.
Have a blessed Wednesday.
Back in the early 1980’s, I was fortunate enough to meet an actual Cajun family from Louisiana. They made beans and rice, Cajun style, and used butter beans instead of red beans and, Oh, my gosh, it was one of the best dishes I’ve ever had. They gave me the recipe and I’ve made it several times a year since then–with cornbread, of course! I also love butter beans mixed with corn, which my mother called succotash, and which I also regularly cook. I truly love butter beans.
We have grown them on poles for years. I love the excitement when they are nearing peak picking time. We plant seeds saved from our grandmother. She also called them a speckled Christmas butter bean. They are so perdy.
To me there is nothing much better than a pot of Jackson Wonder butter beans cooked with a chunk of fatback in the pot and a chunk of good unsweetened cornbread. I also love butter peas. I think that is what you ate at the dinner in Ga. I was taught to feel the pod or wait until the pod begins to turn yellow when picking them. I love butter beans but although I will eat them, I don’t care for the the bigger green or white Lima beans. Dog gone it, Tipper has done throwed another craving on me!