Compare prices for fresh green beans across Edmonton retailers.
Green beans (snap beans) are harvested young and immature and do not ripen or improve after picking, so the pod in the bin is as good as it will ever be and selection is the entire task. Choose pods that are a vivid, bright green — or the deep purple or pale yellow of wax and specialty types — slender, firm, and smooth, with a velvety sheen and no bulging. The defining test is the snap: a fresh bean is crisp enough to break cleanly in half with an audible snap, showing a bright, moist interior, while a pod that bends and folds without breaking is limp and past its best. Pass over beans whose seeds bulge visibly through the wall, since that swelling means the pod has grown over-mature and turned tough, leathery, and stringy, and avoid any with rusty brown flecks, soft watery spots, shrivelling, or a slippery feel. If the ends have been snipped, look for cut faces that are still green and moist rather than dried and brown.
Because green beans cannot get any better at home, the goal after buying is simply to slow their decline. Refrigerate them unwashed in a loosely closed or perforated plastic bag in the crisper drawer, where the humidity is high, and use them within about five to seven days; washing before storage adds the surface moisture that speeds slimy decay, so rinse only just before cooking. Green beans are mildly chilling-sensitive: their preferred storage is around 4 to 7 °C, and prolonged exposure to colder temperatures causes chilling injury that shows up as pitting and rusty brown speckling on the pods, so keep them toward the warmer parts of the fridge rather than the coldest back corner. In Edmonton this cuts two ways through winter — beans left in a freezing vehicle or an unheated porch will actually freeze and thaw to a limp, watery, translucent mush, so carry them indoors promptly and keep them clear of the freezing zone at the very back of the fridge as well.
A green bean is past its window when it has gone limp and rubbery, wrinkled and leathery, or developed dark soft spots, surface slime, visible mould, or a sour, off smell, and beans that have turned slimy or mouldy should be discarded. Beans that have only lost a little crispness but are otherwise sound, with no slime or off odour, are not a loss: a short soak in cold water can revive some of their snap, and they cook up perfectly well in soups, stews, casseroles, or any braise where firmness matters less. Over-mature beans with bulging seeds and tough, fibrous pods are likewise still usable — string them and cook them longer until tender, or shell out the immature seeds inside and cook those like a fresh shell bean.
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