Since I closed the shop at 2178 Lawndale, I have been setting up a small office in downtown Greensboro which is in proximity to the train tracks and the Greenway.
Bye 2178 Lawndale, you served us well and we miss you so much!
On days when it isn't raining, Pica and I have been taking little walks to explore our new surroundings, venturing further and further every time.
This is what Pica and I call a 'Toadstool Kingdom.'
Today on our walk, we found a footpath along some old train tracks beside a little stream. Our friend the groundhog wasn't out today, but I did immediately spot some sweet little flowers attached to long skinny beans growing on a vine throughout the dense foliage. My first question, of course: CAN I EAT THIS?!
I didn't bring my phone on our walk today, so I brought a sample back to the office to look it up.
Luckily, my search for "wild bean plant with purple flowers," yielded
some pretty instant results, and I learned the name of our new plant
pal,
Strophostyles Helvola a.k.a. Amberique Bean a.k.a. Trailing Wild Bean.
Helvola
means yellow-ish, and I assume that's a reference to the color of one
of the flowers found on this vine. I'm very curious about the
combination of both yellow-ish and purple-ish flowers within the same
stalk, but the whole vine contained both, which is something I don't
think I've seen before.
They're a petite flower, about the size
of a dime. The bean pod on my sample was an immature size, but the fully
mature pods were about 3" long, and 1/4" wide. Some of the mature pods
were a dark purple/brown color (the same dark color found on the stem
here). I did not break open any of the pods to see the beans inside.
What really drew me to the structure of the flower is this little dark purple curl, called the
keel petal which asymmetrically curves around the center of the flower.
My sketchbook is made of old To-Do lists, painted over. This gives me a mid-tone and texture to work on, which I generally prefer to a blank white page.
The Amberique Bean so captivated me that it needed to be immortalized in my sketchbook. I haven't fully unpacked my office, so I am using the materials that I have easy access to. My trusty Mangaka Flex is an indispensable part of my sketchbook arsenal, and so are white Gelly Roll pens. I happened to find a selection of colored gel pens in a box I just opened last week.
So, back to the big question. Is the Amberique Bean edible? The answer is
yes!
It is a wild relative to cultivated beans we buy at the store, and
there is evidence from archaeological sites that it was once used as
food. Contemporary preparation instructions are sparse. Many beans
require a thorough cooking process to make them safe to eat, I'm unsure
if our
Strophostyles Helvola is one of them. As with all
foraging, it's important to trust that the area one is harvesting is
free of pesticides and other environmental toxins.
Do you have any experience foraging and cooking with wild beans? What's your favorite way to prepare them?