Do you call them green beans, snap beans or string beans? By any name, they are one and the same and are now in season locally. They are the most popular edible pod bean in this country. 

This bean is believed to have originated in Peru and spread into  South America and north to Central America by way of the migrating Indian tribes. Spanish explorers from the “new world” took them back to Europe in the 16th century and they then traveled to all parts of the world by trading. Spaniards initially treated them as ornamental plants. They found them tough but liked the pretty flowers. Native Americans who used them as a good source of food planted them with corn, letting the beans grow up the corn’s stalk.

Over thousands of years of use, the green bean through research, plant breeding and development is no longer tough and is now “stringless.” In fact, its once universally-green pods can be found in other colors such as golden, purple, red and even...