Bean counting

Bean sorting, more accurately. Haricot vert of varying sizes. Some as small as a thumbnail, others as long as a pencil. Such is the problem of having a job--it's tough to harvest green beans as they're ready. So, in addition to getting some of them when they're just right I also wind up picking some large and some small.

Now to eat them. The super-minis are great to snack on raw. For the large ones it will likely be a cold soup like a vichyssoise, except with the beans subbing for the leeks, and maybe some onions added for good measure. And for the two piles of wonderfully sized beans, they'll be blanched and used all sorts of ways--as a side, in a salad, in lieu of a salad, etc. I hope they reappear here in their various guises.

As for that basil in the glass in the background, I haven't found a better way to store the stuff than exactly like a vase of fresh cut flowers. On the stem with the stems in water, kept in a shady spot. Sometimes this method works so well that the basil will sprout roots.