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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Aug 26, 2018 21:02:47 GMT -5
brownrexx, Those look like the Steuben Yellow Eyes I grew last year. Were yours like half runners? I grew them without support and had to lay the vines over my tomato cages.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 26, 2018 22:15:24 GMT -5
I grew a new bean this season, which I am leaving the rest of to dry out - White Withner Cornfield. Has anyone here grown this before? I only had maybe 3 or 4 vines survive the rabbits, but the ones that survived did great, with little slow down from the heat I got, whereas most beans stop dead, and restart about now (unless I am in another heat wave, like now!). Also, no hint of rust, or any other disease, with all this wetness. It is a flat green bean, with good flavor, getting fairly long, 6-7", before developing beans, and staying threadless until getting seedy. And some of the mature pods have been 10" long! 8" is normal, and the beans seem to be large, which is why I thought that I'd leave the rest to mature, and see what happens. Here's a photo I took of these last few that I harvested (the rest to dry out): IMG_20180826_232737261 by pepperhead212, on Flickr I'll definitely grow this again, for fresh beans, and do something about those rabbits next year! I'm also leaving the rest of the rattlesnakes to dry out, to give me more to plant, since they seemed to be fairly heat resistant.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Aug 26, 2018 23:13:36 GMT -5
pepperhead212, As best as I can remember that's sort of flat like a Romano bean, isn't it?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 26, 2018 23:51:49 GMT -5
hairymooseknuckles That's sort of flat, but not as wide as romanos that I have grown. I updated it above with a photo, with the beans about 6" long, to give you an idea of the width.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 27, 2018 6:17:13 GMT -5
Those look like the Steuben Yellow Eyes I grew last year. Were yours like half runners? I grew them without support and had to lay the vines over my tomato cages. Ranch Gordo just calls them Yellow Eye but they are probably the same. They were about 3 1/2 feet tall and I put tomato cages between the two rows to support them.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 8, 2018 12:56:27 GMT -5
I have not harvested any large quantities of my beans lately but the Pinquito and Rio Zape that were lagging behind have finally become covered with flowers so I am looking for a good harvest from them. Hubby asked me to have a shelf made by a local Amish furniture maker for our cabin so that I could display some of my pretty beans up there. We have antique kitchen utensils on the walls too so this fits right in. I recently took a pic so that I could mail it to the Amish man who made the first shelf and asked him to make me two more. We want to display some of my new beans and also some skinny hot peppers standing upright in jars. We do eat the beans that I grow but I love looking at all of the pretty colors too. I grew some really pretty new ones this year and they will look really nice in jars. hairymooseknuckles, sent me seeds for a beautiful but un-named red and white one and the Pinquitos and small round pink ones. 20180902_133305 by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by bestofour on Sept 8, 2018 22:41:07 GMT -5
I agree that beans are pretty in a jar. I've had people give me a 3 bean soup jar to make and I don't want to cook them because they look so pretty.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 8, 2018 22:49:46 GMT -5
For those growing bush dry beans like Yellow Eyes, don't be in any hurry to pick them. Few variieties "shatter" so the pods don't have to be picked as soon as they dry. Leave the plants alone until most of the pods are dry. Then pull the whole plants and let them totally dry. Then strio off the pods into a basket or pail for further drying. Last step is to use an electric hand mixer in a 5-gallon pail to separate the beans from the pods. (No, the mixer does not damage the beans.)
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by horsea on Sept 9, 2018 0:34:02 GMT -5
@martin. Wish I had heard of your technique, ie, using a hand mixer. Those ultradry bean pods have sharp edges and can be a bit painful and slow to get the seeds out of.
Most of my Woods Mtn Crazy Beans hav gone to seed and I was wondering what they taste like as a soup or baked. I imagine that most dry beans taste more or less the same except for Black Beans, Mung Beans, Moth Beans and Aduki Beans.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 9, 2018 7:30:15 GMT -5
Leave the plants alone until most of the pods are dry. Then pull the whole plants and let them totally dry. Many people do it this way but I prefer to pick them off of the plants while they are still in the garden. This way I avoid the possibility of getting soil and small rocks mixed in with the beans especially bush beans because that would be a lot of plants to pull and store. I have read that some people pull their pole beans and then hang the plants upside down to dry. I actually pick them as they dry to avoid the extra moisture from the fall humidity or rains that we usually have late in the season too. Even though I pick them early, I usually let them dry for several days or even weeks before I shell them and by then the pods are really dry and hard. I read a method of shelling once that puts the pods in an old pillowcase and then beats on the pillow case to crack open the pods. I just shell mine one at a time but hubby likes to put them in a paper supermarket bag and then just crushes the pods with a gloved hand. We pour out the beans into a colander and then take it outside and blow off the debris. This method is much faster but you do have more debris to remove than shelling by hand.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 9, 2018 16:34:54 GMT -5
@martin. Wish I had heard of your technique, ie, using a hand mixer. Those ultradry bean pods have sharp edges and can be a bit painful and slow to get the seeds out of. There were a few years when I was growing 40-50 varieties with as much as 35' per some bush ones. When pods were picked, often enough to fill a 5-gallon pail. There was no way that they could be threshed by hand. Bought a cheap variety at WalMart just for that purpose. Even works well with snap bean types where the pod and bean are as if glued together If wind is blowing good the day they are threshed, it will clean out the chaff. I also often wait until after a frosdt before threshing. That kills any bean beetles. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 9, 2018 16:48:13 GMT -5
I was growing 40-50 varieties with as much as 35' per some bush ones. That's LOT of beans!
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Post by paquebot on Sept 9, 2018 21:32:38 GMT -5
I was growing 40-50 varieties with as much as 35' per some bush ones. That's LOT of beans! At the time, I was offering them on Homesteading Today. Right now I have probably 20 gallons of mixed beans for eating. Maybe close to 100 varieties saved for planting. Since I didn't get to threshing last year's harvest, 5 or 6 pails and some grocery bags waiting to be worked over. Made big pot of bean soup a week ago. Started with 2 quarts of beans. Some a little chewy as they toughen with age. Also, nor all were true dry beans. Snap types often may be cooked for a week and still hard as rocks. Thinking of making bean meal from those. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Sept 9, 2018 21:56:35 GMT -5
brownrexx, I harvested the Puerto Rican blacks this week. Got a lb of dried beans thanks so much. Bolitas are just starting to produce. I was concerned until now, but they should give me some. I held back about a cupful of them for seed in case of crop failure, but shouldn't need them. They were the only two varieties I grew this year other than a runner bean from England that is doing nothing other than looking pretty. And I grew Pisarecka Yellow Bush beans but they were a favourite of the Bunny so I ended up with only a couple of bags in the freezer of beans and less than 30 seed for next year. Speaking of which, we are still undecided about moving. I'll send you a message tomorrow regarding that.
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Post by horsea on Sept 10, 2018 0:39:10 GMT -5
Right now I have probably 20 gallons of mixed beans for eating. I tend to be nervous about the possibility of some sort of economic collapse but if & when it happens, you most certainly will not starve. Also, nor all were true dry beans. Snap types often may be cooked for a week and still hard as rocks. Uh oh. I am letting my Crazy Beans and some other snaps go to seed. So, what do I have to look forward to...
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 10, 2018 8:10:52 GMT -5
I harvested the Puerto Rican blacks this week. Got a lb of dried beans thanks so much. I am so happy to hear that. My PR Blacks produced 2 crops last year. They just kept blooming. Do you have Japanese Beetles where you live? They really liked my PR blacks better than my other beans. I did not grow them this year because I had a lot from last year and I tried a few new varieties this year. My Bolitas always produce right up to frost. They are covered with beans now but they are still green and the plants are still flowering. They always produce late. I never heard that about dried snap beans paquebot , but then I never saved any either. Don't some people add something like baking soda to the cooking water stubborn beans that stay hard? I have never done that either so I don't really know. horsea, the older a bean becomes the longer it takes to hydrate so maybe yours will be fine if you use them sooner rather than later. Some beans bought in the store are many years old , as many as 10 years sometimes.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 10, 2018 10:01:45 GMT -5
Somebody on another forum noted that with all this rain they had (went through their area, on it's way here!), some of the dry kidney beans they had out there were starting to sprout in the pods! Anybody ever have this experience with any dry beans?
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 10, 2018 10:54:53 GMT -5
I found some last week where the pods were touching the ground and some of the beans were sprouting in the soggy pods. I picked a lot of my bean pods yesterday that were brown but not completely dry and I am letting them finish drying in the house because of all the rain we are having. I didn't want them to keep getting wetter. I put a fan on them to prevent possible mold and they seem to have dried nicely overnight.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Sept 10, 2018 12:43:23 GMT -5
Somebody on another forum noted that with all this rain they had (went through their area, on it's way here!), some of the dry kidney beans they had out there were starting to sprout in the pods! Anybody ever have this experience with any dry beans? I had two black beans that had sprouted but only two out of a lb of beans.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 10, 2018 13:32:16 GMT -5
Lost probably 50% of the dry beans in 2008 to rain. Plants were beaten to the ground and then the beans began sprouting in the pods. A Mexican friend was promised some of the Pinto beans. I gave him the whole works and told him to sort them out. There were more sprouted than solid but they cooked just as well.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by horsea on Sept 10, 2018 13:40:33 GMT -5
horsea, the older a bean becomes the longer it takes to hydrate so maybe yours will be fine if you use them sooner rather than later. Some beans bought in the store are many years old , as many as 10 years sometimes. I had heard that beans from the store can be quite old, but 10 years - geeze. Is that why I have to soak some store-boughts for 24+ hours or until a slight fermentation occurs, then cook in the slow cooker for 10 hours, before I have a nice creamy soup. Yes, I am going to try and cook my Crazy Beans ASAP and I thank you for your advice!
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 10, 2018 14:30:24 GMT -5
horsea, I usually soak my beans overnight and then cook them for 6-8 hours in the crock pot but if I want to make soup I do the "quick soak" method where you bring the water with the beans to a boil and then let them sit for an hour. After that I make the soup and let them simmer for 2-3 hours. this has always worked well for me and my beans are always cooked. However I have heard that if you have very hard water then it takes a lot longer for them to soften.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 11, 2018 0:44:25 GMT -5
The need for long soaking depends a lot upon the variety or type. Don't care how fresh snap beans are, they will always be tough. Got any snap beans that are planned for seed? Throw them in a dry bean soup mix and you'll see. True soup or baking beans need little soaking as they are supposed to break down when cooking. Brown Dutch can be 10 years old and still little more chewy than at 1 year. Same for Yellow Eye.
And since the title of this thread is also for growing dry beans, here's a question to ponder. What should be the average return? Check out the price per pound for common varieties. Some can often be found in 2# bags at Dollar Tree. Must be a big return for a small investment. The answer is 120 to 1. Plant 1 bean and harvest 120.
Martin .
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Sept 11, 2018 7:37:41 GMT -5
Pressure cooker does a great job of cooking dried beans in +/- 30 minutes depending on the variety. You just have to remember to add oil to the water to prevent foaming which can clog the vents.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Sept 11, 2018 10:27:16 GMT -5
The only bean that I have ever found that was so tough that even a pressure cooker couldn't totally soften it, was a black soybean, that I got at a local health food store, many years ago. I preasure cooked it 45 min first (what softened most soybeans, in that old PC), then another 45 min, as it had a hard core. It still had a hard core, so I cooked it another hour. It was still al dente, after 2 1/2 hours - actually longer, as that was just the full pressure time. After that experience, I made flour from the rest of the beans!
Most beans would have been mush after that.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Sept 11, 2018 14:35:18 GMT -5
Most beans would have been mush after that Most of them are mush in the PC after about 35 minutes. I wonder how long they had been on the shelf.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 11, 2018 20:43:24 GMT -5
Used to grow beans either for dry or snap without mixing the two. When I started saving beans for mixed soup, I was connected with the community gardens. Told everyone that if they tired of snap beans, leave the plants alone and I'd pick the dried beans later. That's why I have 7 or 8 gallon jars of mostly brown or white beans, snap types. They are the ones that will never soften no matter how long they are cooked. I tried grinding some a couple years ago and broke the drive gear of my Maverick grinder. Now have a more powerful LEM grinder so will give that a try. There are recipes for making refried beans using that method.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 12, 2018 9:06:50 GMT -5
Wow paquebot, now those are some HARD beans! I have the last of my 2017 bolita beans in the crock pot today. I soaked them overnight like I always do and before I started the crock pot I felt them and they were already slightly soft. They will be perfect at dinner time which is about 8 hours away.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 12, 2018 14:20:05 GMT -5
The mistake many make is assuming that all beans are equal when it comes to cooking. The two main divisions are dry is dry or snap and everyone knows that there are big differences among them. Look at what is available in the stores and you will find a very small variety selection. There will usually be Black Turtle, Great Northern, Mayocoba, Pinto, Red Kidney and White Lima. There are a number of others as specialty items. Most will remain the same texture after years of storage. Most limas are one that won't go hard. I've got Pennsylvania Dutch Red almost 10 years old and always toss some into the regular soup mix. Same for White Willow Leaf. The overall super besrt for soup or baking is Brown Dutch. You'll never find it commercially as it has germination and production issues. On the opposite side, Scarlet Runner family will never soften after a year.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by horsea on Sept 12, 2018 14:34:59 GMT -5
The only bean that I have ever found that was so tough that even a pressure cooker couldn't totally soften it, was a black soybean, that I got at a local health food store, many years ago. I preasure cooked it 45 min first (what softened most soybeans, in that old PC), then another 45 min, as it had a hard core. It still had a hard core, so I cooked it another hour. It was still al dente, after 2 1/2 hours - actually longer, as that was just the full pressure time. After that experience, I made flour from the rest of the beans! Most beans would have been mush after that. As I recall, trying to cook regular soybeans (not just the black ones) is equally difficult. In an old nutrition book I have, the author mentions the necessity of also freezing the soybeans at some point in the multi-step processing! She referred to soybeans requiring "elaborate" procedure before they are edible. No wonder the various peoples of the East came up with foods like miso, tempeh, tofu, sprouting of soybeans, etc. - I have, as well, another book that describes dozens of traditional eastern methods of making soybeans edible and digestible.
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