Processing shelling beans from my garden

Ches

Fri, 22 Jul 2016 21:27:11 GMT

Hey FX! Great to have you back! It"s great to have some new articles to read from you.

tasteaholics

Thu, 14 Jul 2016 17:37:17 GMT

Woah cool! I"ve never seen the process of processing beans but this is really cool. Thanks for posting this

fx

Fri, 10 Jun 2016 13:19:54 GMT

Tim, thanks this is a really fun trick and it sounds like it could really work. I"ll see if I can try it at home with some other beans I have, just don"t want to introduce dirt in the machine, I think a couple plastic bags + some heavy ball would be safer.

tim

Tue, 7 Jun 2016 12:54:53 GMT

Tumble-dryer trick for drying beans in their shells:

After harvesting, put beanpods straight into a pillowcase (or similar - a gauze bag would be even better) & tie the top securely. Put into tumble dryer that is set to max for an hour!

Hey presto, beans are now perfecly dry (no more mouldy beans) and when you open the pillowcase you will find that the tumble action has shaken most of the beans out of their pods.

fx

Fri, 3 Jun 2016 20:19:21 GMT

Indeed they look gorgeous in their jars! I think Borlottis are really better fresh than dried but dry some anway.

Quinn

Fri, 3 Jun 2016 01:06:10 GMT

Beans in a jar are so pretty! And after the first time your teeth meet a tiny pebble, you become very serious about picking over the dried beans before cooking, right?
I grow a couple of rows of beans every year, and although I know some varieties are advertised specifically for drying, I"m inclined to think that any bean left to dry in the pod becomes a shell bean (or "shelly bean" as I"ve been taught to call them), and any shelly bean picked young enough can be enjoyed steamed, pod and all. But maybe I just haven"t tried enough bean varieties to know better? I grow mostly heirloom varieties from the eastern US, and yellow and green French filet beans.

fx

Wed, 1 Jun 2016 13:07:37 GMT

Oh yes I love pasta e fagioli too! Now for the slugs if you can live with the ugliness of the steel, they are just flat steel plates with the top folded 45 degrees. As long as you remove the slugs already inside (check out the big brain on Francois here!) and make sure plants growing directly outside do not offer bridges for slugs to climb over that little fence, then they work 100%. I researched this and tested it, it is really total slug protection. But some years I don"t use it and only use little slug pellets instead (depending on the area you will grow in it is too cumbersome to set up for only a few months due to rotation). This year I put plastic slug collars around the pumpkins and doubled the seeds for the beans. "Sow one of the crow, one for the rat, one to rot and one to grow".

marie

Wed, 1 Jun 2016 12:57:55 GMT

Wonderful article! makes me want to grow again after many years of just buying beans. When I go to the amazing Monterey Market in Berkeley, CA they have tons of heirloom varieties of beans. I picked up a few on a recent trip and had fun making pasta e fagioli with them just to try something different!
Can you tell me more about the steel slug barrier? We have a slug problem here-does it stop them from climbing over?

fx

Wed, 1 Jun 2016 11:14:24 GMT

Thanks Titania! I think there are lots of shelling beans that work in warmer climates if you look for them, maybe you could try Phaseolus acutifolius for instance. But to me so far both Tarbais and Borlotti are best tasting!

fx

Wed, 1 Jun 2016 11:10:16 GMT

John-Christopher, those pots are both makeshift festoons and they serve as labels (I write the name of the variety on them). The last people who gardened here were Dutch and they saved every single terracotta pot they got when they bought plants in. I have more than 1000 and nobody wants them, so there is quite a pressure to find ways to upcycle them as we say nowadays.

fx

Wed, 1 Jun 2016 11:08:04 GMT

Ah well the Tarbais are not too hard to find here in Europe but I got all sorts of funny beans from America such as Carole Deppe"s Beefy Resilient Grex and Gaucho. I also got tons from Terroir Seeds and Biaugerme and Kokopelli such as Midnight Black Turtle, Flageolet Chevrier, Jaune de Chine, Haricot Ma�s, Rattlesnake beans. But Tarbais was one of the best tasting.

Nan

Wed, 1 Jun 2016 09:42:16 GMT

Welcome back FX! Love this tutorial. I agree with Christine"s comment. I buy Rancho Gordo beans, especially those that are rather difficult to find elsewhere, like Tarbais. Nan

John-Christopher

Tue, 31 May 2016 22:01:31 GMT

Why ave you placed flower pots on the top of some of the poles in the peapatch?

Titania

Tue, 31 May 2016 21:13:08 GMT

From the beginning to the end it is a pleasure to see you growing, harvesting and using beans. The photos are great. We grow manly the French bush beans as they do best in our subtropical climate. I cook a lot with dried beans, mainly I use Italian beans which I buy, but would like to try again to grow my own to dry.

fx

Tue, 31 May 2016 20:22:06 GMT

Hello Christine, thanks for visiting! Yes I have their books about beans and recipe, but this year I only grow italian beans. But I once grew some of their varieties and also Carol Deppe"s

Christine

Tue, 31 May 2016 20:02:12 GMT

I just got a notification that you were posting again! So happy to see it! Are you familiar with Rancho Gordo Beans? They are based in Napa California and have been very instrumental in bringing heirloom beans from North America back into broader production. Their beans are really delicious.