“Oh my goodness, the possibilities are endless,” was my first thought as I ate the soybeans, also labeled “edamame” (pronounced “ed-uh-MA-may”).

I had been leery of buying edamame, though I’d seen them in the frozen foods aisle at the grocery store because I wasn’t sure if I’d like them and then I’d be stuck with a whole bag. But once I got to try a sample, I zipped on over and grabbed a bag. Just a few minutes in a bit of salted, boiling water, and these babies are ready for eatin’.

I hate lima beans, but these are nothing like those. They’re more tender and sweet and it’s possible the texture is what I like most of all: They’ve got that satisfying mouthfeel that lima beans are missing (spare me from the dry, mealy yuckiness of lima bean hell).

Anyway, they’d also work well in any cold salad recipe you use peas in now, so I’m mulling over my options for pasta, macaroni and vegetable salads to see what gets the edamame treatment.

They’re good and so good for you.

Here’s a story from the Associated Press that wouldn’t fit into this week’s Close to Home section. It tells you how to grow them, if you’re so inclined.

By LEE REICH
For the Associated Press

No need to ramble on praising the many health benefits of soybeans, their high quality protein, their healthful oil, and so on. We’ll assume you’re not living in a cave.

Let’s also keep quiet about the gustatory alchemy that has been wrought on this bean, transforming it into tofu and tempeh as well as “meat,” milk and ice cream.

However, soybeans deserve special mention in their simplest form: the fresh green bean merely steamed or boiled then popped out of its pod into your mouth.

This vegetable often goes under its Japanese name, edamame. If you want one new vegetable to try in your garden this year, make edamame that vegetable.

GETTING STARTED
Soybeans are bushy, frost-tender plants that you grow just like bush green beans. Make rows a couple of feet apart, or, if you garden in beds, plant a row down either side of a bed. In either case, drop seeds three inches apart into furrows an inch deep.

Green soybeans taste something like a cross between a fresh lima bean and shelling pea — and it’s as easy as those plants, or easier, to grow. Soybeans tolerate hot weather better than peas, which languish in summer heat, and cool weather better than limas, which languish in spring’s coolness. And Mexican bean beetles, which in some years devastate green beans, have little interest in soybeans.

Once you’re smitten by the delectable taste of edamame and want to stretch the harvest season, do so by planting varieties that take different times to mature.

OF NOTE
Soybean plants grow larger than bush green bean plants, so tend to flop over. If you like your garden to be neat, just put stakes around the edges of the beds, then let the plants lean on one or two courses of string tied to the stakes.

I also must mention animals: Soybeans are dessert to rabbits and deer. If either of these animals are present and can get into your garden, forget about growing soybeans — unless you want to grow them as a trap crop to keep either of these creatures from feeding on other plants.

THE HARVEST
Harvest edamame pods when they are fully plump and still bright green. As with limas and some other beans, edamame must be cooked before they’re fit to eat.

Steam or boil them in their pods for about eight minutes before eating. Cooled pods gladly release their beans when gently squeezed between your fingers. If you harvest more than you can eat fresh, pack excess cooked pods into bags and into your freezer. When you’re ready to eat them, put the beans in a pot with an inch or two of water and boil for five minutes.

Last 5 posts by Jeanne DePaul

• "Idol" nightmares for May 20 - May 20th, 2008
• Here's a real hero - May 14th, 2008
• "Idol" chatter for May 13 - May 13th, 2008
• The Mariners are killin' me - May 13th, 2008
• And I thought nothing could top last week's "Survivor" - May 8th, 2008