Drying beans is something new to me. I've always grown green beans for fresh eating, but shelling beans were something sort of new and mysterious to me.
Isn't that pathetic? LOL
Something as simple as growing beans to dry and shell scared me! Something people have been doing for millienia on end to survive the winter, and I was afraid to try it.
I had it drawn up in my mind that it would be so difficult to grow my own shelling beans. That it would take so much space to grow enough beans to dry and shell to make it worth my time and effort. But this spring, after 2 failed pea plantings, I planted 3-40 ft rows of Borlotti beans. As an experiment.
So far, I'm quite pleased with the outcome. Borlotti beans are compact and easy to manage. They don't seem to be affected by the crazy weather we've experienced this year. Animals haven't bothered them. And today, there were enough beans dried on the vines to harvest.
We barely scratched the surface of what's growing in the garden today. There are tons more beans in various stages of the drying process. If this year goes well and we harvest enough to be worthwhile, I'll probably plant Borlotti beans again next year. It tickles the prepper in me to be able to produce my own dried beans...call them my Survival Beans.
11 comments:
Congrats on your first season of growing beans for winter use, its amazingly easy to do and you can grow so many different kinds that you would never see in a store. From the sounds of it, you have a amazing harvest coming in..
As I know you were looking for a way to make a little extra $, you might want to consider as a extra side line, small packages of dried beans for the town folk?
I know in our area that there are lots of folks that really want to be in the 100 mile zone, and snap something like this up.
That is a great idea, farmgal! I'm not sure that there will be enough this year to sell, but I bet I could make some cute Christmas presents with them!
Your beans look fabulous and they will surely cheer up many a winter evening!
Way to go!! Check off another skill attempted and DONE!!
I've never heard of this type of bean...sounds fun and interesting.
I've got a long way to go when it comes to survival beans-- I still buy mine in bulk.
We should plant some survival beans!
So cool that you're teaching the kiddos too!
Anon- I'm so looking forward to a big pan of baked beans made with homegrown beans.
Oh Amy- I never considered that a skill that I could check off the list. Woohoo! Cross that one off!
Corn- Borlottis are so beautiful...either purple or white and purple. I think Burpee carries them. But yeah, you plant them then forget them for a few months and before you know, you got dried beans!
I tried this last year and was surprised at how easy it was. We shelled our beans by putting them in a clean pillow case and beating it against the ground. Kids had a ball. Then just picked through to make sure we had them all. Used a fan and dropped the beans into a bowl and blew away the chaff.
I planted black beans for the first time last year. The grandkids had a blast shelling them.
I like the name "survival beans" :-) I'll have to look into borlotti's -- wonder if cangrow them here with our short growing season.
Donna-I love the pillowcase suggestion. I think my kids would love that too!
Dr-we have a fairly short growing season here...from say May to September/October. I bet they'd work for you too.
So cool! I, like you, thought growing "dry" beans would be difficult.
These beans sound great! I think I will give them a try next year.
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