From Guest Blogger Liza Gyllenhaal, who also took these photos:

I’ve been growing green beans in my vegetable garden every summer for the last dozen or so years. They’re an easy-going, uncomplaining, and reliable crop in general, but it wasn’t until I came across a particular variety of seed a couple of years ago— a combination of green, yellow, and purple haricot verts — that I came to realize that beans have a flamboyant and exotic side as well.

The seeds, about the size of navy beans, are themselves multi-colored and should be sunk into the ground about an inch or so — and six inches apart. They seem to sprout in any sort of weather from early spring right through the summer, growing about a foot high before unfurling delicate white snap-dragon-like flowers from which the nascent beans emerge. They’re the size and shape of toothpicks at first, but can literally grow overnight — like Jack’s beanstalk — into fairly monstrous proportions.

When picked young, the beans are tender enough to eat right off the stem — or can be served raw in a summer Nicoise salad. Six inches is about the ideal size for cooking but, a bit longer in the tooth, they can be sliced on the diagonal and boiled similar to the frozen “Italian Beans” I remember from my childhood. In any case, freshly picked from a backyard garden and steamed or boiled, all they need is a little butter or olive oil and a grind or two of salt and pepper for the perfect side dish.

Most of the children I know don’t seem to view green beans with the same distrust they do other vegetables. In fact, waiving good manners for the sake of good nutrition, we allow green beans to be gathered by the fistful at our dinner table and jammed unceremoniously into the mouth.

Green beans are also a wonderful foil for other tastes. There’s something about their mildness and texture that invites coupling with more assertive, sometimes outright aggressive flavors such as garlic, lemon, or anchovies. It’s pretty easy to dress up green beans and dazzle friends and family, which makes them a great addition for your upcoming holiday dinners and buffets. With the garden under wraps for the winter now, I have to buy my green beans like everyone else. But there seems to be a bumper crop in the Northeast this year — some the size of leaf piles — in our local markets.

Perhaps the simplest and most satisfying recipe I’ve found recently is this one that combines green beans with ginger and zested lemon. It’s a great dish for a crowd as it can be served at room temperature and holds its color for hours. (Click here for the recipe.)

Updating an American classic, the New York Times recently ran a recipe for green bean casserole. You’d think this haute cuisine metropolis would turn its collective nose up at such an idea, but I was at a luncheon this week filled with New York editors and publishers and it turned out that a number of them were planning on making it for Thanksgiving this year! (Click here.)

I myself am going to try this Spanish-influenced recipe for green beans with chorizo sausage. (Click here.) It seems like such an interesting combination of tastes, textures and temperatures — and something that I think should nicely compliment the gaminess of turkey.

Liza Bennett Gyllenhaal is a novelist who divides her time between the Berkshires and New York City. Read about her new novel Local Knowledge at www.lizagyllenhaal.com