Along with fresh field corn and taters ’n’ maters, previously expounded upon, I’d be remiss if I didn’t spin an ode to the bean, which comes in many guises. In late summer the markets are brimming over with a variety of bulging specimens of all colors. There is the trio of green, yellow, and purple beans, the delicate pink-tip beans, the red and scarlet-streaked tongues of fire. There are cornfield beans, crease back beans, shelly beans, snap beans, soldier beans, stringless beans, wax beans, gizzard beans. There are beans with names like Appaloosa, Aquadulce, Black Coat, Blue Jay, Calypso, Molasses Face, Wren’s Egg. There’s the Sandy Mush Greasy, the Kentucky Wonder, the Early Riser and the Rattlesnake Snap.

And then there are the beans expressions. If you “don’t know beans” about anythi

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