Edamame Beans – whodathoutit

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I grew Edamame Beans this year. And a couple of days ago I harvested some. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting anything to come of the plants. I never saw any seed for sale while I was in the UK so I assumed that you couldn’t grow them. When I moved here the seed packets were everywhere so I thought, ‘let’s give it a go’. A bit like with the Watermelon – you know, what’s the worst that can happen?

So I sowed the seed. Pretty late in the season actually. Around early July time. They shot up. And just carried on growing. The plants are about two foot high. But one of the best things about them is that they don’t need staking. They just stand up by themselves. A little bit like a French Bean bush.

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The beans started to appear, and fatten but I had no idea when to harvest them so I looked it up. Edamame beans are actually immature Soybeans so you harvest them when the pods start to swell with something the size of a large oval pea inside.

Then you harvest them, boil them in the pods for five mins or so until the pods turns a slightly olive colour. Then you can either pop them out and use in salads or sprinkle salt and eat them by squeezing the pod between your teeth until the bean pops out and discarding the pod. That’s the way I’ve eaten them in restaurants.

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They’re a pretty cool crop. No bother really and the results are plentiful.

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