I planted some scarlet runner bean vines at the beginning of the summer, mostly because I thought they looked really pretty. As it turns out, they also produce a rather abundant amount of perfectly edible beans, which is a rather nice bonus as far as I’m concerned.
I just took a peek in the backyard, and it looks like my beans are now ready to harvest. I don’t have a giant-sized haul, considering I only planted two vines, but I’m estimating that I’ll have around 1 1/2 to 2 cups of shelled beans to play around with.
So, does anyone have tried and true recipes for runner beans they’d like to offer up? Or maybe favas or limas, since I understand are reasonable substitutes? I’m a fairly adventurous eater and have access to a huge variety of ethnic ingredients where I am, so pretty much anything goes so long as it doesn’t involve the scary maggot cheese currently being discussed in MPSIMS. 
Here’s my West-by-God-Virginia recipe, which should be prepared with half-runners, but I don’t suppose the world will come to an end if you use another kind of bean. This is as far from the concept of a crisp, lightly-steamed bean as you an possible get.
String and snap your beans in half. Rinse them and put them in a slow cooker with a slice or two of real bacon, chopped into small pieces. Cook on low all day, like 6-8 hours. Serve with big slices of fresh-out-of-the-garden tomatoes and chopped raw onion. Mmmmmmm!
If you have bacon grease on hand, you can use a tablespoon or so of it instead of the bacon.
Sic the sandman beans on them?
Sounds like a great recipe,** freckafree**… unfortunately, my beans were a little too mature and the pods were much too tough to eat, even with a nice long simmer like in your recipe. I guess I now have an excuse to plant some more beans next year, just so that I have some younger beans to try that out with.
As for my shelled beans from this year’s crop, a little googling turned up several articles that indicated they could be cooked up like fresh limas, so I boiled them up until tender and then whizzed up in the food processor with some garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and za’atar to make a dip. Pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself.