beans for drying

[vivekagardensMember]

Hello!
Great to see pictures of you podding and winnowin your drying beans. What are your favourite varieties for cooking? If beans are semi- dry, say in September, can you cook them without soaking/boiling for 40 minutes? How do you go on to dry the ones you’ve just podded? And do these need the usual bean soaking/boiling time. I’ve never been able to find out info about cooking home grown drying beans, and so dithered in the past. Am determined to make it happen for 2012! I am on a mission to show you can grow and eat all year round as a vegetarian.

[charlesModerator]

 Thanks for your comment. The beans I am treading are almost 100% dry and ready to be stored in jars, similar to what you buy in the supermarket BUT of far superior flavour and texture, and surely nutrition too. After soaking overnight they want cooking as usual.
If you havest pods with fat, soft beans that are clearly not dry and hard, they can be cooked immediately without soaking, or frozen in bags for cooking later, or kept somewhere dry and draughty in their pods to finish drying, as long as the pods are going yellow or brown at time of picking, i.e. not too fresh.
These dry beans need a whole summer to ripen and may not work in northern Britain. Sow seed undercover in May to plant out by early June. Borlottis ripen earlier than runners. Both of mine in the photos are climbing beans which are easier to dry on the plant, but dwarf beans are also possible.

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