Chinese Red Noodle Beans: A Great Find!

Purple beans, yellow beans, grean beans. Now we're happily adding red to our mix.

After last year's happy discovery of asparagus beans (which strangely enough the wasps happily hung out at all season), we opted for another variety of long beans this summer: the Chinese Red Noodle Bean. An heirloom variety, the red long beans easily grew more than 18 inches long, and the vines taller than myself.

The red noodle beans took little more than bamboo poles to climb and water to grow - no extra care or skill required - are still producing in this heat when other plants - my purple bush beans included - aren't.

I found this interesting tip from rareseeds.com: Harvest by thickness not by length, but take caution not to wait so long that the seeds bulge, which means the beans are too fibrous.

If you're looking for ideas to try these with, most recommend a stirfry, often with garlic or chilis, or try this recipe for glazed long beans from the Food Network.