The beans are firm and stay whole, but you can keep cooking them and they'll go from starchy to creamy. Despite their thick skin, they exude a beautiful bean broth that needs little help to be enjoyed.

Scarlet Runners are one of the oldest cultivated foods of the Americas. If you grow them, you'll fall in love with their cheap, 1950s lipstick-colored flowers, which are edible. The hummingbirds love them and they're so pretty, some people grow Scarlet Runners for just their flowers.