thanks Dave!! I appreciate the information :)

Just wondering - haven't picked mine since Wed (and some were big then), Dave said he just leaves them to get big enough to shell. If you do that, doesn't the plant shut down production? I expect I'll find some large ones today and I don't know whether to pick them and use them as suggested above, or leave them for shellies. I do still want to get small ones later this week, and until frost, esp. on my pole beans that just started producing. Thanks

The bean plant will think it's going into seed production, but you pick them, they will think they have to produce more. Just pick all that are to size. Offer the larger beans to customer, some people actually prefer them.

How large is large enough for shellies - if you get them that large, will production take a break until you pick them?

We used to shell anything that didn't 'snap'. It might take a week or so for the plant to realize that it's having to produce more. Shellies are usually smaller than small limas. It's more a quality of 'snappiness' versus size.

With only 4 more weeks of market left, it's probably not worth letting them get that big. I'll have to pick more tomorrow since I stopped today due to thunderstorm. I'll just sort the beans before I blanch and freeze them (use the larger ones in soups and such as Dave suggested), hope to have smaller ones Wed to bring to market.

Wow, seems to be the year for green beans! I already have 15 lbs in the freezer and there are going to be more when I get out there tomorrow (too wet today). As long as they are not too big or tough, I just freeze them all. What we turn our nose up at in the summer sure tastes good in the winter.

My bush beans didn't do that well but the pole beans are going crazy. Just came back from BBQ at my parents', my dad let his squash and beans go (I picked 2 trash bags full of baseball-bat sized golden zukes, to compost, didn't even bother with yellow straightneck sine I have my own but I want to get his zukes producing again since mine are almost done). His beans are big enough for shellies - shelled one tonight to check but not enough time to pick. Don't know if I'll go back in the next couple of days but maybe later this week/early next I'll go get them to try.

He only ate green beans straight off the plants, my mom never cooked any (I don't know if he bothered to bring any in, he could have cooked them but she likes canned green beans). They both ate so much squash they're tired of it (we're in the same boat but since I was growing green zukes and he has golden I wanted to try it).

His beets look ready to me but they're waiting for them to get bigger. I got yelled at for picking a couple of tomatoes since he likes to let them ripen on the vine, but these (a Brandywine and a hybrid beefsteak) were yielding on the bottom and cracking on the top due to rain, I figured I'd better get them before they were ruined with more rain tonight/tomorrow. All is cherries are cracked and rotting - I guess he never picked any this summer.