Early in 2019, CURVE artist Mary McCall Timmer’s Aunt Johann sent Mary and her husband Matt a handful of Dr. Martin’s Lima Beans… these beans are direct descendants in a lineage that extends back to Mary’s Grandmother. So Matt sprouted some and gave two plants to Pattiy here @ CURVE for the vegetable garden, as they need something strong to grow on and our raised beds have a 5 foot metal fence! Well, we have had a bumper crop of these delicious HUGE lima beans so we are sharing the wealth with our CURVE 30 Party goers as a sincere thank you for supporting CURVE studios and its mission all these years!
Dr. Harold E. Martin, a Philadelphia dentist who lived just down the road from what is now Pete's Produce, had an unusual hobby. In the 1920s, Martin developed what became known as the Dr. Martin Lima Bean. According to Martin's obituary that ran Dec. 26, 1959, in the Daily Local News, Martin was born on March 2, 1888, in Philadelphia. 'Dr. Martin was a longtime resident of Westtown township, living for many years along Street Road, in the vicinity of the Westtown-Thornbury Elementary School. His hobby was growing vegetables and his lima beans were widely known for their size as well as their tenderness and flavor. “Generally, large limas are not tender, but these are,” he said holding up one of the beans, which are almost twice the size of a regular lima bean.’
The legume was named for the capital of Peru, where they've been cultivated for more than 7,000 years. What you are eating is actually the seed.
One-half cup of lima beans are fat and cholesterol free, only 100 calories and provide 20 percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber and 7 grams of protein.
Pete's Summer Succotash
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1½ cups Pete's 'candy' onion minced
Coarse kosher salt to taste
1 large garlic clove
3 cups cherry tomatoes, minced (about 1½ pounds)
2¼ cups corn kernels: four ears of corn, 2 white, 2 yellow
2 cups fresh Dr. Martin lima beans (from about 2 pounds of pods)
3 tbs thinly sliced fresh basil