• The whole young pods of bean plants, if picked before the pods ripen and dry, can be tender enough to eat whole, whether cooked or raw. Thus the word "green beans" means "green" in the sense of unripe (many are in fact, not green in color), as the beans inside the pods of green beans are too small to comprise a significant part of the cooked fruit.
• Very versitile, dry beans can be eaten and used in many ways (raw, sprouted, or cooked)  2-3% fat and 20% protein, makes them an excellent food storage item.
• Dry beans can be stored for years.  Soaking of a couple of hours brings them back to life.
• 15 ft. row of pole beans will produce about 12 lbs. of fresh beans over a 6-8 week period.
• Use for fresh eating, freezing or canning.

 In one technique known as companion planting, the three crops are planted close together. Flat-topped mounds of soil are built for each cluster of crops. Each mound is about 1 ft high and 20 in wide, and several maize seeds are planted close together in the center of each mound.  In parts of the Atlantic Northeast, rotten fish or eel are buried in the mound with the maize seeds, to act as additional fertilizer where the soil is poor.  When the maize is 6 inches tall, beans and squash are planted around the maize, alternating between beans and squash.

The three crops benefit from each other. The maize provides a structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide the nitrogen to the soil that the other plants utilize and the squash spreads along the ground, monopolizing the sunlight to prevent weeds. The squash leaves act as a "living mulch," creating a microclimate to retain moisture in the soil, and the prickly hairs of the vine deter pests. Maize lacks the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which the body needs to make proteins and niacin, but beans contain both and therefore together they provide a balanced diet. 

The three sisters planting method is featured on the reverse of new issues of the US Sacagawea dollar coin.