and now for something completely different....

[Guinevere]

Lima beans aren't beans - they're hugely deformed peas (which I also despise).

But they are traditional in crab soup, and so I will eat a few, mostly the baby variety, if I must. In crab soup. Never stand alone.

[RayThom]

An age old saying that I use that all my relatives are familiar with when I'm invited for dinner...

"NO LIVER... LAMB... OR LIMA BEANS."

The vegetable(?) that was a mistake of nature.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Geez - that's the second time in less than a month I have agreed with wes. I love lima beans. What's wrong with me? Does this mean I have to become a citizen and vote for Trump?

[Burning Petard]

I grew up with lima beans from a can and tasting strongly of sulphur. At college I ate fresh lima beans for the first time and found them to be completely different and very tasty. I have been exposed to crabs (edible seafood only. No snickers please) since I came to the Delmarva Peninsula in 1972. I have eaten crab soup only in restaurants. Usually a basic broth with strings of crab meat and way too spicy for my enjoyment, or a cream soup listed on the menu as crab bisque. Neither had any lima beans.

snailgate.

[Sue U]

Well I'm not afraid to admit that I think lima beans are just fine, and I love beets. I had a delicious beet salad Saturday night when we went out to dinner. I like 'em red, purple, pink, golden or white, pickled or roasted or out of a can. I Iove borscht, hot or cold, with or without sour cream. As Malaria might say, "Beets Best!"

[Joe Guy]

I can remember many years ago eating ham hocks and lima beans and liking the beans more than the ham hocks.

[BoSoxGal]

I prefer my crab mostly in cakes - the best I’ve had in my life were consumed in the DelMarVa region.

I haven’t had a lot of Lima beans in my life, but have no particular distaste for them.

[Guinevere]

I grew up with lima beans from a can and tasting strongly of sulphur. At college I ate fresh lima beans for the first time and found them to be completely different and very tasty. I have been exposed to crabs (edible seafood only. No snickers please) since I came to the Delmarva Peninsula in 1972. I have eaten crab soup only in restaurants. Usually a basic broth with strings of crab meat and way too spicy for my enjoyment, or a cream soup listed on the menu as crab bisque. Neither had any lima beans.

snailgate.

My family has been in Maryland since colonial times and settled the eastern shore. They generally always put lima beans in their crab soup. That’s our way of making it, and I’ve had other crab soup like that. Crab “bisque” doesn’t really exist as a tradition there. In Charleston, they made a creamy “she-crab” soup. Delicious, but very very different than Maryland crab soup.

I don’t eat beets. They taste like dirt. Yuck.

ETA: I googled “MD crab soup recipes” and they almost all include lima beans. McCormick’s crab soup recipe

And Scooter - for the record, while I certainly can’t speak about whether my family ever owned any rusty pick ups, I can tell you they fought for the Union in the Civil War, and supported the civil rights movement later. I’m pretty sure an African American family was part of my grandparents “club” which they started in the 50s.

Edited again to fix the damn link.

[Guinevere]

Well I'm not afraid to admit that I think lima beans are just fine, and I love beets. I had a delicious beet salad Saturday night when we went out to dinner. I like 'em red, purple, pink, golden or white, pickled or roasted or out of a can. I Iove borscht, hot or cold, with or without sour cream. As Malaria might say, "Beets Best!"

My family also has a tradition of making/eating pickled beets, and they put whole hard-boiled eggs in with the beets to pickle. That’s one culinary tradition that I refuse to continue. Ugh. Made me nauseous as a kid, and still does.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I Iove borscht, hot or cold, with or without sour cream.

With you on the borscht, Sue. I've had some pretty good meals in some fairly odd places but those that stand out and I can recall still are probably countable on one hand. One was a cold borscht in an otherwise unremarkable place in Buffalo that was no longer there when I went back for more six months later. I have tried to make borscht a few times since then with recipes off the intertubes but with mixed success. OK but nothing special.

[Sue U]

My family also has a tradition of making/eating pickled beets, and they put whole hard-boiled eggs in with the beets to pickle. That’s one culinary tradition that I refuse to continue. Ugh. Made me nauseous as a kid, and still does.

I think that recipe is mostly for pickled eggs, the beets are just added for color. In Philadelphia back in the day, all bars were required to serve some sort of food. As the story was told to me, many met the requirement by having a large jar of pickled eggs available, usually sitting at the end of the bar, because apparently in some universe that qualifies as "food." I actually tried one once (on a dare, obvs.). The lesson there is that with enough alcohol, you can eat anything.

[Burning Petard]

Guin, thanks for the link to the soup recipes. 'Old Bay' in one of the best things I have found living in the mid-Atlantic area. I use it on almost everything, including popcorn. Would it be ok if I tried the McCormick recipe with the lima beans and carrots, but left out the corn? My wife cannot handle corn kernels. Now if I could only persuade a local sandwich shop here to make a pork tenderloin sandwich like they used to make in Iowa, life would be perfect.

snailgate

[Guinevere]

Snail - of course! Make it to your taste, else why bother?

Sue - really, its a jar of beets, and one or two pickled eggs. So I think it was more about the beets. Those people I'm related too LOVE their beets, crazy as that sounds. And who pickles eggs, except drunks. And Germans. Obvs.

[RayThom]

My mom had a "red sweet sauce" recipe for the lowly beet. I always looked forward to having her beet dish at dinner. Now she's dead and no one in the family seems able to replicate her secret recipe.

RIP... Mom -- I miss your beets.

[MajGenl.Meade]

A slogan for both sides of the debeet

[Big RR]

Beets are one of a small group of foods, tongue is another, that I will avoid because something about it really disgusts me (for beets, it is the foul smell of them cooking, for tongue it's the texture ). Indeed, I used to eat pickled beets (even enjoyed them) as a child until I once smelled them cooking at my grandmother's house, and I have been unable to eat them since because that smell immediately comes back to me. Anyone who wants them can have my share of the beet crop.

[Crackpot]

You do really see most sugar comes from beets

[RayThom]

Beets are one of a small group of foods, tongue is another, that I will avoid because something about it really disgusts me... tongue it's the texture ...

Never taste anything that can taste you back.

[Big RR]

You do really see most sugar comes from beets

In processed foods, I think you're right; but high fructose corn syrup has to be a close second.

[Jarlaxle]

An age old saying that I use that all my relatives are familiar with when I'm invited for dinner...

"NO LIVER... LAMB... OR LIMA BEANS."

The vegetable(?) that was a mistake of nature.

Now I want lamb.