beans for drying?

[CityChick]

Who grows beans for drying?  What are your favourites?  Borlotti comes up a lot, but I wondered what else?

I came across this link:

http://www.btinternet.com/~bury_rd/Beans.htm

which included a few I would have thought of more for growing as fresh beans, eg blauhilde, blue lake, cherokee trail of tears, white emergo...

Just wondered what people have tried and given the thumbs up to (or the thumbs down).

[CityChick]

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

yes I read that link too. We're trying beans for drying for the first time this year. We're growing a few climbing borlotti, cannellini beans, pea beans and various haricot types (haven't decided which). We might try drying broad beans, but the chances are we'll eat them all fresh as usual.

We haven't got our seed order yet, but if you want some of the above, drop me a note

[Froglegs]

Hi the two i grow are Canadian wonder and Barlotta. :)

[weedin project]

Yin Yang (or "Orca the Killer Beans" as we call them).  Fascinating black and white beans, dry and keep excellently, and produce a good crop the following year if you can avoid eating them all and manage to save some for sowing.  Dwarf plants, a bit like the "teepee" varieties.
Mind you at 8p per bean (the original packet I bought was 25 seeds for £2.00) they should be good! :o

[cambourne7]

Hi

I have decided to do this for the first time with

Cannellino
Blue Coco
Coco Bicolour
Blue Lake

fun fun fun

Cambourne7

[Hector]

I know this is an old topic but how did you guys/others find the mentioned bean varieties? One of my aims this year is to get as many beans for drying that I vcan get. We are vegetarians and eat loads of bean casseroles...so info about this would be invaluable :)

[amphibian]

I'm upping my bean production dramatically this year. I'm growing, for drying.

Hidatsa Shield Figure Bean
Hutterite Soup Bean
Bumble Bee
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Jacob's Cattle Gold
Speckled Cranberry
various others

I've only grown CToT before which I've had graet success with.

We seem to be obsessed with green beans in the UK, when personally i love shelling beans. They store well and provide winter protein. You can cram a lot of plants in to little space too.

In our house we have dozens of glass jars full of beans, they're so pretty, I love selcting hwich beans to soak for tomorrows dinner.

[Hector]

Thanks Amphibian, exactly the info I needed. Will have a mooch round for them after work :) Heard good things re the Hutterite Soup Bean :)

[amphibian]

We're vegetarians too, so beans are essential in our household. I bought my beans from the Seed Savers Exchange. they're in the US, but delivery was as quick as you'd expect from a UK outfit, they have a large selection of beans specifically bred for drying.

Americans seem a lot keener on drying beans than the British. they call them shelling beans.

Runner beans are good for shelling too, very large meaty beans, taste amazing.

I'm quite excited about the Hutterite Soup Bean, can't wait to make my first bean soup.

This year I'm going to grow beans down my entire back garden's length, about 100' of bed. I haven't put any organic matter in yet, but have about 300L of worm castings. Does anyone know if this would be good, or would it be too rich?

[saddad]

We grow Blue Coco, Blue Lake, and Ch. Trail of Tears for a brown, white and black dried bean respectively and Borlotti as well... Coffee jars make excellent storage for them too...
If you want any Jackie just add it to the pm...  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

Worm castings should be good for anything.

[artichoke]

Have I missed it, or has no-one mentioned what I call gigandes, but are elsewhere known as spagna blanca and similar names, eg:

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/gww0109/1.html

For those who don't know them, they are a form of runner bean, very vigorous and tall, with short pods that are left on until they are brown and crisp, and each have several big fat white beans inside that taste like extra good butter beans, but bigger and better. I find them very easy to grow, and my saved beans from last year are currently showing about 90% germination. Plenty of recipes about, eg:

http://greekfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/gigantesplaki.htm

[PurpleHeather]

I tried it a few years ago and they all started to sprout, then went mouldy. I just did not have the room to spread them out to dry properly. It is fine with just a few for next years planting, I do that with success.

What I did last year with the beans after podding them was to cook them up straight away in a sauce then froze them to add to stews.. It worked out very well because I had so much in the way of tomatoes to make a sauce with and probably was more economical then drying and then soaking, boiling up and cooking.

[amphibian]

Have I missed it, or has no-one mentioned what I call gigandes, but are elsewhere known as spagna blanca and similar names, eg:

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/gww0109/1.html

I've bought these beans to eat fom our local Eastern European grocery, they are lush in the extreme. I sowed some of teh bought beans but had only limited success, I wasn't sure exactly what they were of course, they just said 'Foreign wibble' on the packet.

Thanks to you I've now ordered some from Seeds of Italy*, I also could resist some Black Eyed Beans and some climbing sugar peas while I was there. Oops!

*Franchi seeds are very good quality and the packets considerably larger.

[Hector]

Thanks all....this is a great place :)