Friday rookie topic: Dried beans

BEANS BEANS THE MORE YOU EAT........
I have chosen dried beans to discuss this week because I feel that they are the most efficient crop to grow for year round consumption. They are extremely healthy being high in protein,calcium,iron, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, niacin, B6, and folic acid. Growing them them improves your soil, in that they are nitrogen fixers, thus giving nitrogen back to the soil, whereas most plants take nitrogen from the soil. They are extremely easy to preserve.
The one that I have the most experience with is black turtle beans, but there are many others such as: garbanzo bean, adzuki bean, black eyed bean, kidney bean, navy bean, mung bean and pinto beans. (these are the more common ones)
I have been quite delighted this year to find that black turtle beans seem to LOVE mels mix and I have planted them all in a 4x4 SFGs. The varieties that I have used are all bush plant types and so thus not requiring a lot of staking. I do support them somewhat with string if needed, but the plants seem to be able to stand pretty well on their own.
They are a warm season crop, tender to light frosts and freezes. Cold wet weather fosters disease and so do not plant too early, do not touch the plants when wet, or after you have touched a diseased plant. Direct plant seeds after all chance of frost is over and the outside daytime temperatures are above 55 F
Some gardeners recommend presoaking seeds, before planting but research indicates that presoaked seeds absorb water too quickly, causing the outer coats to spill out essential nutrients encouraging damping off seed rot. Yields can increase significantly by inoculating with rhizobium bacteria. Optimal temps for germination are between 60-85 degrees F and for growth 60-75 degrees F. Plant 1 inch deep and you can plant 9 seeds per square foot. They like full sun, and well drained soil (mm). Provide good air circulation to help prevent blights, mosaic disease and anthracnose.
And really that is all there is to the growth, you just let them grow and don’t pick the beans. Sound too easy?
THEN before the first frost, and after the plant has lost its leaves you harvest the plants by cutting the plants off at the base. They then need to cure for several weeks in a well ventilated area. Stack the plants on screens or slatted shelves. The beans are dry and ready to thresh when they don’t dent when they are bitten. (cutting the plant off at the base of the stem leaves the roots to break down and provide nutrients to the soil for next years crops.)
Threshing is really just a means of separating the dried plant parts from the actual beans.
One way to do this is to put the dried plant into a pillowcase and smash it onto the ground, then take out the big bits of plants and then on a windy day take two buckets and pour what is left between the two buckets allowing the wind to blow away the chaff and the heavier beans to fall down into the bucket. Going back and forth like this gradually gets rid of all the dried plant bits (chaff)
Then you are all done, you can store the beans in air tight jars or bags and keep them in a cool dry place. They say up to a year.
I am sure it depends on your area, but if there is a concern about weevils, they suggest you freeze the dried beans for several hours before storing.

I will include my recipe for Turtle black bean soup
(I usually make it in the winter when I already have the wood stove going, and simmer if for several hours over the stove)
1 lb of turtle black beans (soaked over nite in enough water to cover)
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 onion chopped
5 garlic cloves minced
1 head of celery chopped
8 cups of vegetable broth
1 cup of red wine
1 tsp of sage
Salt to taste
Heat oil in 6 quart pot over medium heat, add onion garlic and celery, saute for 4-5 mins. Add the broth, wine, drained beans and sage
Bring to boil over medium high then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours. (if you want the beans to be mushy leave the lid on, and if you want them to be formed leave the lid off) Add salt and pepper to taste.



http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-community/self-reliance-dried-beans-zm0z11zmat.aspx

Thanks for the account of your success with Black Turtle Beans. I am always looking for new varieties of beans that seem to work well.

Any disease or pest problems with them? It say they take about 100 days. Is that about how long yours took before you were harvesting for drying beans?

I would say that is true, 100 days, about...
I have found that the important thing is to plant when it is warm.
So you think you can get another hundred days out of this summer? I know I can't
I have only grown them twice before, once down in Oregon (not coastal) and once here and I really did not have any bug problems at all.

Ah! this thread is for growing beans, but, it's been a while since I had a big pot of beans and cornbread!

I've never grown dry beans for they're so inexpensive, but, I may have to try for there is not much work to it.

Has anyone tried beans(pinto, navy, great northern, etc.) eating in the immature stage, before the bean is dry?

We eat 'baby limas' or as some folks call them 'butter beans'. They are picked and shelled while the bean is still small, kept refrigerated, then cooked with ham /cornbread on the side or with the okra and toms.

Jo

I am very excited to grow beans next year for drying! Thanks for the awesome topic. I will for sure try the recipe, I bean soup!

What an excellent topic GWN! Thanks for all the great information on dried beans. I had no idea it was so easy. I'll be trying a few varieties for sure.
+1 Cheyanne. I can't wait till next year already and planting some black beans
Littlejo, there's not much better on a cold night than a big pot of beans and some cornbread

Gwn, sorry I was so busy today to help you out earlier with getting your topic up and not getting it added to the scroll bar and sticky'd sooner. Great topic and thanks for getting it out to us

we are growing Horto semi-bush horticultural bean for the first time

the package says:

An improved semi-bush horticultural bean that is both early and stringless. The fleshy pods have excellent flavor and texture when young and can be used as a Romano or snap bean. When allowed to mature fully it is used as a shell or dry bean. It is also known as Tongues-of-fire and Cranberry Bean from the bright red streaked appearance of the pods. App 63 days to maturity.

not sure how to eat this as a snap bean....the out side *shell* feels kinda silky. velvet or soft like feeling compared to a regular green bean....the plants are doing great and we have ton's of these guys growing on them.....



we were thinking we would grow these for a dry bean.....never grown a bean like that before....we only have grown green beans and eat the whole thing.....

so glad for this topic today as i was curious when to harvest these guys

hugs
rose

I believe that all beans can be left to dry in the fall, my guess is that certain ones have been chosen to be better for it.
My MIL just picks the beans that did not get picked in time for eating and then dries themThis picture is of my "first harvest" of dried turtle beans, and it was a few years ago and my first attempt at biointensive gardening. and the area involved for this harvest (Plus I did not really know what I was doing with the soil) Was an area about 2 feet by 2 feet.


So this harvest does not need to be frozen OR canned and will last as long, if not longer than frozen or canned goods.

Family gardening, I would try to at least leave some of them for drying. Perhaps try both fresh and dried....

I usually leave some of my green beans get too big on purpose after I have harvested all that I want for the freezer. They dry and are used as any dried bean. Works.

My Mom used to grow navy and kidney beans every other year. We had enough dried beans for a family of 7 that lasted 2 years.

Homemade bean soup - what a treat on a cold winter evening.

greatgranny wrote:I usually leave some of my green beans get too big on purpose after I have harvested all that I want for the freezer. They dry and are used as any dried bean. Works.

My Mom used to grow navy and kidney beans every other year. We had enough dried beans for a family of 7 that lasted 2 years.

Homemade bean soup - what a treat on a cold winter evening.

that's awesome!

littlejo wrote:

I've never grown dry beans for they're so inexpensive, but, I may have to try for there is not much work to it.

I wonder what the price of anything will be due to the severe drought in many places. I have been blessed with just enough rain and some supplementing with the water hose.

thanks GWN for the great topic. This is our second time to try dry beans here in Western Oregon. The first attempt was semi-successful, but that was in the days before SFG. This year, we have 4 squares of Good Mother Stallard, a streaked, rather large bean, from Seed Savers Exchange. They have just this past week begun flowering. I'm excited to see what we'll get. We're fond of dried beans in winter for all sorts of delicious dinners. BTW, anyone out there got some dry bean-winter squash combination recipes?

BTW, anyone out there got some dry bean-winter squash combination recipes?

I don't, however I wonder if you could just take a bean soup recipe and add squash.
The recipe I included, I have added many things to, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, I do not see why not try squash.
In fact I might just try that myself.

jnaet

GWN wrote: ...I have been quite delighted this year to find that black turtle beans seem to LOVE mels mix and I have planted them all in a 4x4 SFGs. ...

I'm wondering how your harvest turned out, GWN. Any updates?

It's been several years since we last tried raising beans to dry for winter soups. This year we planted an heirloom variety called Good Mother Stallard, a medium-sized spotted bean. As of this week, I've begun to harvest pods that have dried, or are near dried, and fanned them out in the sunroom to dry fully before shelling. The one pod I opened had beautiful black and white beans in it. Anyone out there who has grown this variety, and even better, cooked them? I'd like to know more about this heirloom. Nonna

I have been very busy lately, but hope to post pictures of my harvest soon, we got TONS of beans... and they are all on a HUGE tarp in the basement drying..
the entire plants

This is my little "almost" a pint of kidney beans. This was in a 4x4 bed that I was experimenting in. BUT I did not have a water grid and did NOT keep up with watering very good! the bed was off in the original garden area and I hated dragging the hose there every day! So finally I just let it go and harvested when the plants died.

I love them but just too much area taken up for something we don't eat much of. The grandkids did get to learn a garden lesson though.

Have you tried growing Pigeon Peas? They are very easy to grow. Grow tall (mine reached about 8 - 9 feet) and are very attractive (can turn them into a type of hedge.) Poultry love the leaves (so you can trim it and feed it to them as it's growing.) You can eat the peas when they are sweet and green. And, if you just can't be bothered, leave them on the plant to dry. I harvested almost exactly a pound of dried beans from each plant. If you care for the plant in the south through the dry winter, it will produce again the next year. (I didn't. Mine died. But I planted them in a bad spot.) However, I trimmed the dead plants and am now going to use them to stake several indeterminate tomato plants up. (I'd planned to plan pole or yardlong beans, but forgot and planted the tomatoes.) Use them just like any other dried bean. Very tasty! (And they self-sow. I've one volunteer I didn't get out in time. Bad spot, but it looks so nice I have to leave it! LOL)

GWN wrote:Family gardening, I would try to at least leave some of them for drying. Perhaps try both fresh and dried....

thank you for the suggestion

we did just that....we froze some and left the rest to dry....we ended up with 2 pints of dried *horto* or tongues of fire beans (my son loves that name better )

we are still drying our scarlett runner beans.....not sure how much we will get for a dry bean....they sure did well though and were so pretty....our humming bird *pixi* just loved the red flowers

hugs
rose

I just wanted to share with everyone that tonite we had a great big pot of black bean soup. It was from my crop of turtle beans. They were just incredible, totally different from the dried black beans in the store. ( I made BB soup a few weeks ago with the dried black beans from the store)

The ones from my garden were so much more flavourful, and tender.
So just another plug for dried beans while everyone is still planning their square feets.

I know when space is tight, dried beans take up a lot of room

Looking at CindiLou's jar of dried beans made me things the unthinkable and yet it is very valid


I suggest for those who cant make deep beds for the beans to make a 2 foot x 1 foot x 18 inch high box for raising the bed depth to 2 feet deep and fill with MM run two plants in it , keep the moisture consistant what ever you do .

Runner beans /kidney beans thrive on deep well nourished soils . the big box would help keep them at the idea soil moisture levels and also keep the roots nice and warm .

I've said this because if you look at the gallery at the top of this page 7 look in the big stuff you can see the ginormous beans we grew on hot beds .
These " hot beds " were in 18 x18 x 18 inch holes filled with shredded paper at the bottoms to depth of about six inches un wetted ( helps keep a water reservior at the roots if they want more water onhot days ). Then the hole was filled to the top with slightly tamped down MM mixed with some extra added composted manure .

Those beans were delcicous and didn't go stringy till a day or so before the first frosts.

From five seeds we must have had well over 30 pounds of beans including the 1/2 pound of seed beans I put to one side .

Even now in March 2013 we are still eating blanched and frozen ones out the deep freezer & look set to have enough till this years crop becomes available in late June..

GWN wrote:I just wanted to share with everyone that tonite we had a great big pot of black bean soup. It was from my crop of turtle beans. They were just incredible, totally different from the dried black beans in the store. ( I made BB soup a few weeks ago with the dried black beans from the store)

The ones from my garden were so much more flavourful, and tender.
So just another plug for dried beans while everyone is still planning their square feets.

I know when space is tight, dried beans take up a lot of room

Gwn, I still refer to this rookie topic often. It's one of my favorites and I'm planting some beans this year just for dry storage. I'm curious where you got your turtle beans from?

For the last two years I have grown the pretty Whidbey Island heirloom, Rockwell.

In 2012 Ray started getting more into the everyday work of urban farming. (he's always been good for building, tree and bee care, mowing and stuff but stays away from the plants). Harvest was a little lower than I had hoped last year. Surprising me with dinner one night, he made beans, telling me that he had found a patch of green beans that I seemed to have forgotten about. How do you tell the man who just made you dinner that you had not forgotten about those beans? I chose to laugh.

Gwn, I still refer to this rookie topic often. It's one of my favorites and I'm planting some beans this year just for dry storage. I'm curious where you got your turtle beans from?

Thank you rooster.

I got mine from West Coast seeds, a Canadian seed company.
This year I have branched out and am trying several other heirlooms. Cherokee trail of tears, speckled cranberry, and blue Jay bush bean.
This past year I grew lots of green beans and found that I froze TONS of them. I really do not seem to like the frozen ones and so my plan this year is to grow LESS beans for eating fresh. OR..... I might try to eat them fresh and when I cannot keep up, let them go dry. That way I will have lots of fresh beans, and then later lots of dried beans.
These heirlooms I bought are said to be good fresh or dried..