Frozen Fordhook lima beans - where to buy?

[ferdlap]

These used to be available in the frozen vegetable section of every supermarket, but now I can't seem to find them anywhere! Suggestions appreciated...

[ferdlap]

Thanks all for the suggestions. Will have to try Gelsons and some other Vons stores - the local ones don't have them.

As to the question of if the small ones are the same, they are not...different animal...not just small Fordhooks. For those of you who have never had Fordhooks, it's worth the effort to find them if you like beans.

For now, the quest continues...

[ArtShapiro]

Target has baby lima beans (not Fordhook - is that significant?) under their house brand "Market Pantry". I think they're fine. And unlike Ralph's, they haven't shrunk the 1 pound bags of various vegetables to 12 ounces. At least yet.

Art

[BubblyOne]

Just bought some at Gelson's and my mom found some at Von's last week, that's here in OC. Last time I checked at Ralph's, which used to carry them, none to be found. Sometimes I just settle for the smaller ones and even those aren't always available.

It's amazing that the Segerstrom family (South Coast Plaza) made their $$$ farming limas and they are so hard to find. When I asked at one store (forget which) a year or so ago, I was told they were "out of style".

[Will Owen]

Yeah, I raised some semi-polite hell at my Ralphs a year or so back when I was looking for baby limas (those are what we like for succotash). The manager acted as though he'd never hear of either limas OR succotash, though he looks and sounds like a native-born American. Since then the babies have reappeared, but no Fordhooks. They DO have a jillion much more exotic beans, including a huge section of nothing but edamame (!!), but something as normal as lima beans?

I suppose we could always grow some …

[Baron]

I'm growing some from seed I got on line from Burpee called "Big Mama" lima beans. I got some fresh fava beans from Sorento in Culver City, which were very good but the season passed.

[BubblyOne]

BTW, the ones from Gelson's were Pictsweet (you might find out from them what stores carry that brand) and the Von's were Safeway, so good luck with that one:)
We are lima fanatics in my family. When anyone sees some, we buy several packages.

[Will Owen]

I try to keep bags of the babies in my freezer for when we get that succotash jones. It doesn't strike often in the summertime, but you'd be surprised …

Pictsweet is my old favorite, a good premium brand. I'll have to check out the Pasadena Gelson's and see what they have. The only real problem with store brands is they aren't picked over so carefully for bad beans, so I usually wind up doing that in the pan.

[jbermo]

I too, have a hard time in finding simple frozen Lima beans of any variety today. . . other items to be added to the “endangered” list in California . . .

Fresh yellow corn

Watermelon with seeds

and when September comes - Fresh, Crisp, Apples. . .

Note- Calif dept of Agriculture now requires all imported apples to be in cold storage for 30 days prior to store shipment. Hence no more fresh apples (as most apples are imported from Washington).

Expect yellow peaches to be next on the California chopping block, as many central valley farmers today are uprooting their yellow peach trees in favor of planting the low acid (low flavor) white peach variety . . it's what the public "wants" ya know!!

Sorry for the rant and thread creep!

[Will Owen]

My favorite stone fruit dealers are some guys up near Fresno who sell at the Thursday South Pas FM. They do have some low-acid varieties, but we've had some discussions about that and they'll keep growing the good ones as long as people are buying them.

As this thread is basically about the disappearance of what should be considered normal foods from our local markets, I think neither your rant nor this subject are off-topic.