Snow peas do look like regular peas, or worst, sugar snap peas, when they are over mature. Lima beans are much larger and wider pods and have a noticable oval bump where the beans are. A few years ago, I made the mistake of planting snow peas and sugar snaps right next to each other. It was not an easy task to seperate, but at least both had edible pods for a while before they get tough. This is my second year of growing limas and these are much different. Most get pickled at one time, as the plants usually produce about 75% of their crop all at maturity. There is nothing like the taste of a fresh cooked lima. Even for that, if they get too big, they are still not tough, and the beans are now called butter beans as they turn a bit yellow color. My second crop of regular peas (non edible pod) is now about 2 inches tall, and should hopefully produce here before a real frost sets in.

Yes, the favas (geez, I had "limas" typed out just then - even still, I'm getting the names confused!) taste quite a lot like edamame. I think that's why I enjoyed them so much. The texture and flavor were similar, but a bit more assertive in the favas than you'd find in a soybean. I was feeling too blah to cook the limas after making a batch of kale chips to snack on (have you all tried them? Holy goodness, they are SO good!), so I'll have to futz with them tomorrow. It sounds like they need a bit of cooking time, as some of the recipes I saw said to boil them for 15 minutes or until tender, and they were referring to fresh limas. That sounds like an awfully long time to boil anything green, so we shall see. I like mealy beans a lot, so that might not be a bad thing. Vall3fam, I hadn't even thought of checking out TJ's or Whole Paycheck for frozen favas, and I was just there today! I'll have to look the next time I go. I'd love to buy them fresh, but even at $1/lb, I'd end up composting 3/4 of it because the shell to bean ratio is so small, and decreases even more when you peel the skins off of the beans.

Depends on where you are. In the south butterbeans are baby limas. In the middle of the country along the Mississippi, butterbeans are the big limas. The Dixie Butterpea, speckled is a popular speckled bush cultivar in the south. Jackson Wonder is not exactly speckled but it is a popular colored bush lima.

Linda, I'm not much for fresh limas either [do like dried], but, with fresh picked baby limas and since your DH loves them, I'd sure start out with the simplest prep and just steam them and serve with butter. Really fresh does call for letting that great taste shine by itself. I'm sure you'll get some other ideas but you might just want to quickly blanch some of them [half a minute] and freeze for the middle of winter. Steamed and then maybe some other dish for some and freeze the rest. I wish it was in me not to mention the fishing but..... lol.. I suspect you meant fishing for stripers...not strippers. Stripers are so much fun when they're running. I can remember fishing off the rocks at Barnegat Light when I was a kid with my father and just hauling them in.