Lima Beans

People have odd hobbies. Mine is trying to breed unusual lima beans. I've got varieties that grow big, grow small, take a long time to boil, are bitter, taste something like pumpkin ...

But last year I found a sport branch on a normally bitter variety that is intensely sour. I collected the beans, crossbred them, and now I've got some very interesting varieties. Most are disgusting in one way or another, but a number of plants have produced ... what? Complex flavors, mostly sour but slightly bitter, with some earthy overtones unique to them. Really striking. They still look like lima beans. They cook down to about the normal lima bean texture. But treating them as lima beans is like treating cocoa beans as okra.

I've been trying jellies. Pies. Filled bread buns. Salty chicken dishes. With ice cream and an orange glaze. Mixed in cheese with truffles. I know they've got potential, but I'm just not enough of a cook to know where to take them. I've discussed them with other breeders on the World Wide Lima Bean Vine and they're excited. I've also been looking up chefs in New York City and mailing them samples. But I haven't heard back. They probably look at them, and think, "Huh. Lima beans."


This was in response to my own prompt on reddit.com r/WritingPrompts, "You've found a sport that takes lima beans in a whole new direction." The prompt was ignored for many hours, no upvotes or downvotes even, so I wrote this to suggest what could be done with it.


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