Lima beans came ashore on America’s West Coast

Big juicy lima beans have been on America’s vegetable plate for nearly 160 years. Tasty and plump, these beans were introduced to the New World in the late 1860s, arriving in Santa Barbara, Calif., on a ship from South America.

 

Local farmer Robert McAlister took 10 pounds of the beans off the incoming vessel when it docked and planted seeds in his garden. 

The yield was so successful that ranchers from all over the fertile Oxnard Plain came to see the new bean. McAlister was generous with the seed, and many other plots were sown with equally good results.

 

Horticulturist Henry Fish began experimenting with lima beans on his ranch in nearby Carpinteria, Calif. The plantings thrived due to the rich soil and foggy summers, and the Henry Fish Seed Company was born.

Fish wrote to several seedsmen who came to examine his beans. In 1908, the W. Atlee Burpee Company (Burpee Seeds) offered the best price. 

The company had been formed in 1878 by Washington Atlee Burpee of Philadelphia, Pa. He dropped out of medical school at age 18 to breed and sell farm animals as well as seed products.

 

By 1888, the family’s Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pa., was transformed into an experimental research station to test and evaluate new varieties of vegetables and flowers as well as produce seeds.

 

One of Burpee’s most famous items was his lima beans, which he named as Fordhooks.

 

Atlee Burpee seized on a new retail idea, the mail-order catalog. Light and compact, seeds were perfectly suited for postal deliveries to rural America.

Since most of Atlee Burpee’s customers were farmers rather than home gardeners, he named his catalog “Burpee’s Farm Annual.” Soon, Atlee Burpee was running the world’s fastest-growing mail-order seed company.

 

He soon extended distribution to include “market gardeners, florists, farmers’ clubs and extension service agents.” Burpee personally wrote most of the copy for his catalogs. Burpee set up an advertising department and offered cash prizes for the best advertisements to promote “Burpee Seeds Grow.”

The 1891 catalog was the first to feature engravings made from photographs, and this changed the whole industry, as hand-drawn illustrations in catalogs disappeared. 

In another break with tradition, Burpee printed testimonial letters from growers.

Writing for NPR, journalist D. Cameron Lawrence of Louisville, Ky., said lima beans were on her “childhood list of despised foods – bulbous, starchy and bland…green lumps staring back from the school cafeteria tray.”

Now, as a grown-up, she said: “Limas are…often, the star of a meal. They’re easy to fix with just a bit of olive oil, margarine or butter, salt and pepper. I like their heft as a side dish, meaty little bundles that complement lighter fare.”

 

“These little beans are nutrition powerhouses, packing protein, fiber, iron, manganese, folate, thiamin, potassium and other nutrients into a modest calorie count, with just a speck of fat and no cholesterol,” Lawrence wrote.

 

“Fordhooks are large and pale green. Baby limas are not immature Fordhooks but a separate variety that are smaller, less starchy and more delicate tasting.” In fact, baby lima beans are about half the Fordhooks’ size.

 

“Other varieties come in many shades besides the common cream or green color, including red, purple, brown, black and the speckled ones,” Lawrence said. “Many of these, like the festive Christmas lima, are heirloom varieties. The Christmas bean is cream-colored with maroon mottling and has a flavor reminiscent of chestnuts.”

 

We just missed it. The Pinson (Ala.) Butterbean Days, a big two-day event (near Birmingham), was the first weekend in October.

 

But, mark your calendar, National Lima Bean Day is coming up on April 20.

What’s your pick: Butter beans or lima beans?

Which vegetable do you prefer: butter beans or lima beans? Truth be known…your vote doesn’t amount “to a hill of beans,” because they are one and the same.

How can that be? Butter beans are “a true Southern dish,” whereas lima beans are grown in…Delaware.

‘Tis true, but the ultimate authority on this matter is L.H. Hayward and Company of New Orleans, La., the 103-year-old family business that owns the legendary Camellia brand of dried beans, peas and lentils – the market segment leader.

 

Founder Lucius Hamilton Hayward Jr. started selling dry red beans by the pound in the historic French Market in New Orleans. He named the brand Camellia after the favorite flower of his wife, Bessie Bonner Hart Hayward. 

The Hayward webmaster states: “There’s really no difference between butter beans and lima beans…our ‘Large Lima Beans’ packaging actually states ‘Butter Beans’ in parentheses, just to clarify.”

 

“Younger green-hued beans are often called ‘Green Baby Limas’ and are more tender than their larger counterparts. Despite that, all varieties come from the same plant. Whether you prefer to call them butter beans or lima beans is a result of your own geographical traditions and how your family and friends refer to them.”

 

“Regardless, these tasty beauties have been a Southern staple for generations,” according to the Hayward webmaster. “They’re high in fiber, super hearty and offer a deliciously creamy, velvety, buttery flavor. If prepared right, they offer a lush creamy goodness encased and embraced by a firmer, shape-holding skin.”

Buttery flavored beans just lend themselves to being named butter beans, said Hannah Skinner of Los Angeles, a contributor to Mashed.com. 

Lima beans originated centuries ago in Lima, Peru. Over time, the pronunciation of lima bean changed from LEE-mah to LYE-mah.)

In the music and entertainment world, “Lima Beans” came first. The jump blues song was written and performed in 1951 by Eddy Ware, a native of Birmingham, Ala. He was working in Chicago at the time as a pianist, singer and bandleader.

 

Mostly an upbeat saxophone-laden instrumental, Ware contributes limited lyrics, including:

When I was a young’un in my teens / My mouth used to water for lima beans.

Whenever I had a few cents in my jeans / I’d spend it all on lima beans.

Sweet beans, sweet beans, lima beans… / My mouth keeps waterin’ for the lima beans.

The county music novelty song “Butter Beans” followed in 1965, written by Charles D. Colvin and sung by Bob Cain of Hartselle, Ala. Cain was a vocalist, trumpeter, bandleader and supper club owner in Birmingham, Ala. 

Here’s a slice of the lyrics:

Pass the cornbread if you please / I don’t want no collard greens / All I want is a bowl of butter beans.

Just a piece of country ham / Pass the butter and the jam… / And some more o’ them good ol’ butter beans.

Red eye gravy is all right / Turnip sandwich a delight / But my children all still scream / For another bowl of butter beans.

When they lay my bones to rest / Place no roses upon my chest / Plant no blooming evergreens / All I want is a bowl of butter beans.

Any way you serve them, butter beans/lima beans are an excellent source of protein, fiber, iron, and B vitamins and qualify as a low-fat, low-calorie food.

 

Chef Ed Hennessy of the culinary arts department at Delaware Technical Community College in Dover, said garden-fresh butter beans are unbeatable, but they’re available for only about a two-month window (August and September).

 “They’re fine frozen, too, if you treat them right,” Hennessy said. “You thaw them in the refrigerator, and just sauté them to order, with bacon or onion and black pepper.”

 

“If you boil them when they’re rock hard, you lose some nutrients, and you’re likely to overcook them.”

 

 

 

What’s the ‘latest scoop’ with the N.C. state ferry tolls?

How’s it going with the plan to eliminate North Carolina’s free state ferries by Jan. 1, 2027?

The General Assembly instructed the Ferry Division of the North Carolina Transportation Department (NCDOT) to start charging tolls by the first of the new year to all people who use the four “commuter ferry routes” that are currently free.

The affected ferry runs are: Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach, Aurora-Bayview, Currituck-Knotts Island and Hatteras-Ocracoke. New toll rates are yet to be determined.

State ferry division personnel conducted a series of “listening sessions” in early September. Five sessions were held to solicit comments from citizens who live in communities near the ferry terminals and those who routinely use the ferry service.

The purpose was to get their input about how much they’d be willing to “pay to play.”

Holly Jackson of the Washington (N.C.) Daily News, who covered the gathering held in Washington, encountered some frustrated Aurora-Bayview ferry riders.

 

Jackson reported that 92% of the ridership on the Aurora-Bayview ferry is composed of permanent residents, most of whom are employees commuting to the Nutrien phosphate facility in Aurora (formerly PotashCorp).

 

The decision by the state legislature in July to charge ferry tolls “was like a punch in the gut,” said John Richards of Pinetown in northern Beaufort County. He said he works for Nutrien in Aurora and commutes by way of the Aurora-Bayview ferry.

It’s a 30-minute crossing of the Pamlico River, on the “extension” of N.C. Route 306. Richards said he could “bypass” the ferry by driving around his elbow, but that would add another 40 minutes to his travel time each way.

Richards said that the ferry is one of the main primary reasons why he and several colleagues who live on the north side of the Pamlico River continue to work at Nutrien. “I would never think of going to work over there if I had to drive around every day,” he said.

State Sen. Bob Brinson of New Bern represents Beaufort, Craven and Lenoir counties. Two of the ferry routes are in his district (Aurora-Bayview and Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach). He said NCDOT intends to pool revenue generated by the ferry tolls into a fund that will be used to replace aging vessels in the fleet.

 

“There’s concern, at least from me,” Sen. Brinston told the Daily News, “that that’s not really the way replacing roads works. So why should that work for the ferries?”

State Rep. Keith Kidwell of Chocowinity, whose district includes Beaufort, Dare, Hyde and Pamlico counties, said: “By and large, the citizens of eastern North Carolina have made it clear for nearly 30 years that they do not support ferry tolls. Ferries are part of North Carolina’s highway system and should not be tolled.”

 

“A lobbyist for the tolls sat in my office in Raleigh and explained to me that the ferry system is grossly mismanaged. My question to him was: ‘So when the government mismanages something, the answer is to tax the citizens to make up for government mistakes?’”

Writing as a guest columnist for TownDock.net in Oriental, Greg Piner emphasized that N.C. Route 306, is a major thoroughfare that runs north-south through the center of Pamlico County and also includes the Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach ferry. 

N.C. Route 306 continues on to connect with N.C. Route 101 in Craven County.

 

A retired civilian chemist, Piner rode the Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach ferry for more than 30 years, going back and forth from his home in Oriental to work at Marines Corps Fleet Readiness Center East in Havelock.

 

“The State of North Carolina has some very efficient ways to raise revenue,” Piner said. “Tolling ferries is not one of them.”

He offers “a 72-cent solution.”

“All of the revenue from the tolls will go to the Ferry Capital Special Fund, solely to help fund the purchase of new ferries,” Piner said. “I have heard that the goal is to raise $5 million of gross revenue each year. Five million.”

“Collecting tolls is labor intensive and has a huge overhead. A reasonable estimate is that for every dollar you spend on a ferry toll, 50 cents goes to the cost of taking your money. That’s not just true for North Carolina, it’s that way all across the country,” Piner wrote.

“The entire North Carolina Ferry System transports around 1 million vehicles each year. Currently, the three ferry routes in North Carolina that are tolled generate about $2 million of gross revenue each year. The overhead to generate that revenue is about $1 million – half of the revenue generated.”

“The four remaining ferry routes will require millions of dollars to provide the infrastructure necessary to begin tolling vehicles,” Piner continued.

“Tolling ferries is a very, very bad way to raise revenue.”

“You might not like to pay it,” Piner said, “but the gas tax is efficient. For every dollar you pay in gasoline tax (the average driver pays around $350 a year), 95 cents goes straight to NCDOT to do the things they do.”

“One of the things they do is fund the N.C. Ferry Division. On the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers, the ferry routes are our highways. We take them to our jobs, to school, to business appointments, doctors visits, to visit family, to run errands. Now those ferry routes – our highways – are about to become toll roads.”

“Ferries are part of the highway system,” Piner argued. “For example, the Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach Ferry is a continuation of N.C. Highway 306.”

 “The gasoline tax provides NCDOT about $2.4 billion each year. The current gasoline tax is 41 cents per gallon. There are roughly 7 million people all over the state just pumping away. Every time a gallon of gas goes into their tanks, 41 cents goes to the State gas tax fund.”

“When you get all those people pumping all that gas you can generate a lot of revenue. How much revenue? One cent of gas tax generates $53 million per year,” Piner said.

“What if someone told you that if the State of North Carolina raised your gasoline tax from an average of $350.00 each year to $350.72 each year, then $5 million of revenue could be put in the North Carolina Ferry System Fund every year, and ferry tolls could be completely eliminated on all the ferries in North Carolina?”

“That would allow the Ferry System to focus on what they are trained to do: safely transport as many vehicles as possible every day across the rivers and sounds of North Carolina.”

“That is what generates real revenue, revenue for small businesses, restaurants, hotels and the thousands of local citizens that take a ferry to go to work,” Piner added.

“A simple one-tenth of a cent gas tax will generate far more revenue than a ferry toll ever could.”

 

9 N.C. coastal counties ask for ‘ferry tolls relief’

Nine coastal North Carolina counties are seeking relief from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to waive state ferry tolls on locally registered vehicles. The new tolls are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

A joint resolution in opposition to the tolls was approved in early September by the county governing boards in Beaufort, Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, New Hanover and Pamlico counties.

The resolution maintains that “ferries serve as the primary, and in some cases exclusive, highways and bridges for the residents, commuters and emergency services of eastern North Carolina.”

Residents of the nine counties “rely on these state-maintained marine corridors daily to access employment, medical care, education and essential goods.”

The resolution states that “mainland residents of North Carolina enjoy free, un-tolled access to state-maintained roads, highways and bridges funded by the general tax base, to which coastal residents also contribute.”

The resolution asserts that “imposing additional transit fees on local citizens simply because they reside in a coastal region creates an unfair system of double taxation, and the financial burden of new or increased tolls will disproportionately harm local working families, small businesses and fixed-income retirees who have no viable alternative transit routes.”

The nine counties implore NCDOT to develop “a fair and equitable solution” that distinguishes between daily local commuters who utilize the ferry system as an essential highway and tourists who use the system for recreation.

The counties’ resolution strongly recommends that “any necessary state revenue adjustments focus strictly on non-resident, seasonal tourism traffic, rather than penalizing local citizens.”

Residents of Hyde County who use the Hatteras-Ocracoke vehicle ferry regularly are raising additional concerns.

Joy Crist, editor of the Island Free Press, based in Hatteras, said that Ocracoke’s long-time “resident priority boarding system needs to remain.”

This issue is a top priority for Hyde County, the Ocracoke Civic and Business Association (OCBA), and the Ocracoke Access Alliance (OAA).

Speaker after speaker at a recent community meeting “described the ferry as Ocracoke’s highway to medical care, work, school and other basic services…and warned that eliminating priority boarding could fundamentally change day-to-day life on the island.”

Mary Ellen Ballance, Dare County commissioner; Tess Judge, a member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation; Jed Dixon, Ferry Division director; and Justin LeBlanc, executive director of the Ocracoke Access Alliance.

OCBA President Bob Chestnut said a new state law requiring tolls on every North Carolina ferry route beginning Jan. 1, 2027, is especially troubling to Ocracoke residents because it does not continue the priority loading component.

Presently, businesses, vendors and residents can apply for free passes to get priority loading status for the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route. These are decals that are placed on the driver-side windshield of a vehicle. Loading attendants direct “PRIORITY” vehicles to use “PRIORITY” lanes for boarding at both ferry terminals.

Justin LeBlanc, executive director of the OAA, said Ocracoke’s resident priority system has operated for roughly 40 years without being specifically authorized or prohibited by state law.

Crist wrote: “According to LeBlanc, NCDOT has determined that once the new tolling law takes effect, the agency will need explicit statutory authority from the General Assembly to continue the resident priority program.”

LeBlanc said: “The only way we get priority pass back is getting a new law enacted by the General Assembly.”

Business and government leaders are pushing for “a technical correction” when the General Assembly reconvenes Nov. 30. 

“Draft legislative language has already been prepared that would authorize continued priority access for Ocracoke residents,” LeBlanc said.

Hyde County Schools Superintendent Melanie Shaver said the ferry connects not only the island to the mainland but the two geographically separated parts of the Hyde County school system.

 

“The ferry is not simply a transportation option; it is the road that connects our communities, our schools and our services,” Dr. Shaver said. “For visitors, missing a ferry might simply mean waiting for another boat. For an Ocracoke resident, the consequences can be considerably greater.”

“That ferry means missing a dental or medical appointment, attending a school event to see their child, accessing services or simply just getting home,” Dr. Shaver said.

 

Illustrated on the logo are Lake Mattamuskeet Lodge and pump station (at left) on the Hyde County mainland and the iconic Ocracoke Island Lighthouse.

Ken DeBarth, president of the Ocracoke Preservation Society, said: “The boats are our way of life. We need the priority pass. Please make a correction.”