Growing beans

[Rosyrain]

For those of you who have grown beans before, do you have to dry the once they are picked from the plant before storing them? How do you go about drying your beans if this is something you have to do? I had thought about growing my own beans, but I am not sure what the harvesting process entails.

 

[Chuck]

For those of you who have grown beans before, do you have to dry the once they are picked from the plant before storing them? How do you go about drying your beans if this is something you have to do? I had thought about growing my own beans, but I am not sure what the harvesting process entails.

You let the beans dry in the pod on the plant if they are dry bean types. The pod will turn brown and dry. Pick before the dry brown pod opens up. For green bean or snap beans pick them when the pods are full and still easy to break in half. For green or baby lima's when the pods are full and green. For large lima's wait until the pods turn brown. After the pods are dry and brown just break open the pods, remove the beans and whatever you do, do not let them get damp. Just store them in an airtight jar. For green beans of all types I pressure can or freeze.

 

[Kansas Terri]

What Chuck said.

If I had to do it again, I would wear stout gloves when I shelled the beans out. The dry, broken pods were kind of irritating. But, I continued shelling beans without gloves because I was ALMOST done, and my gardening gloves had dried mud on them! I paid for that decision for two days. Oh, they did not hurt ALL the time: just when I went and washed some dishes in soapy water, or handled vinegar when I was cooking. I would forget that my hands were scuffed up and then- WOW!

After I broke up the beans and had them more or less shelled out, I just put the beans on cookie sheets and left them out for a few days. I was pretty sure they were dry then, but I am the cautious sort and so I put them in a zip lock bag and put the bag in the freezer.

When I cooked them, they tasted just like beans. They were fun to grow, but I could not tell the difference in flavor from bought beans, and so the next year I grew something else in that spot. I am glad that I grew them, as a garden SHOULD be fun, and the drying pods stuck out at all angles which looked kind of funny.

It was less funny when I let some pods go too long and the pods split on the bushes, spilling the beans onto the ground. I watched the plants more carefully after that.

 

[IcyBC]

I did what Chuck said too, two years ago when I grew beans. I let two to three of them dried on the plant until it is time to take them in for storage.