Collecting your own dried beans

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Collecting your own dried beans
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Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 09 5:02 pm Post subject: Collecting your own dried beans
I have just spent a lovely hour on the terrace splitting the pods of dried beans, first time this year and will probably only get around 5 kilos. Although very time consuming, it will be a good feeling next time we have a bean salad or patï¿½ made with our own beans. Does anyone else?

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8980
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 09 5:05 pm Post subject:
I'll just be saving runner bean seed this year- everyone had sold out of Brown Dutch this year so I'm ordering earlier next!!

Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 09 5:07 pm Post subject:

Mine are still on the plant in the polytunnel..... perhaps tomorrow.

I grew runner beans and french beans - and really preferred the taste of the runners when green. So I left all the french beans to mature. They are the Cherokee Trail of Tears variety from Real Seeds. The pods are now a deep purple.

I've left a few runners to mature also as they don't cross pollinate with french beans and I can plant them next year.

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 09 7:58 pm Post subject:
5kgs sounds like a decent harvest to me. I'm waiting for some French beans to dry (the ones I forgot to harvest fresh) amd may have enough for the equivalent of a couple of tins of baked beans!

ksia

Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 2320
Location: Mayenne, France

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 09 8:09 pm Post subject:
Dried beans gathered: barloto, la victoire, butter, yin-yang, runners. Pea beans still drying on the plant.

Green Rosie

Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 09 8:15 pm Post subject:
Slight aside but I must remember the herbs that are in the drier

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 09 8:31 pm Post subject:
I used to do this but the last three summers have been very disappointing for beans.

VM

Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 1748
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 09 1:35 pm Post subject:
Being in Manchester rather than Spain, we've not managed to dry beans as yet - autumns have just been too wet / cold. However we leave almost all our runner beans to turn into beans for podding and then we freeze them - I'd rather dry them so as to be less reliant on freezer, but have to say the frozen ones have been delicious in past years.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sat Sep 26, 09 2:26 pm Post subject:
borlottis have done well, although I''ll probably freeze rather than dry, as they cook quicker. Yum.

Millymollymandy

Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 187
Location: Brittany, France

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 09 6:31 am Post subject:
I'm leaving runner bean pods on the plant for the first time but when do I harvest them for the beans inside? Do they go yellow and dried out like borlotti beans? They don't seem to be doing anything except staying green! The plants themselves are over in the sense that they haven't produced anything new to crop for the last month.

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 09 7:08 am Post subject:

Millymollymandy wrote:

I'm leaving runner bean pods on the plant for the first time but when do I harvest them for the beans inside? Do they go yellow and dried out like borlotti beans? They don't seem to be doing anything except staying green!

The plants themselves are over in the sense that they haven't produced anything new to crop for the last month.

We left them on the plant for as long as possible - yes they do dry and go yellowish - (weather depending), we then stripped the leaves and hung the plants for a few days to dry further - stripped the pods and left the beans to dry. Novices here too but followed what the locals do and it has been successful. A few pods take longer to dry but we have left those for later.

Millymollymandy

Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 187
Location: Brittany, France

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 09 12:42 pm Post subject:
Cheers! I see you are in Spain so probably a lot hotter than Brittany but I'll wait and see what happens - though frosts could come before they turn yellow! But it's only a bit of an experiment so it doesn't really matter as I have plenty of runner bean seeds.

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 09 1:49 pm Post subject:
Northern Spain so not much warmer than where you are at this time of year I wouldn't think - good luck with them.

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 09 6:12 pm Post subject:
interesting thread would it work with my peas that i have left on the plant as well and can i pick the pods, put them in the airing cupboard to dry out and then strip them off? this is wales and they aren't going to dry on the plants outside we are still eating our runner beans here but they mature much later up here on the mountain

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Sun Sep 27, 09 8:26 pm Post subject:
Hi Nanny - can't see why not - give it a go and let us know . can't get dried peas here so that would be something for us to try next year - I love mushy peas

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