2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[Ridgerunner]

I feel a bit sheepish to admit this, but I've never actually eaten any bean as a 'shelly' bean, even that terminology is new to me and I was surprised when I saw how many people actually use that expression.

I don't grow beans or harvest them to eat as a shelly bean, but when I'm snapping green beans if I find a pod that is kind of later than it should have been picked so the pod is a bit tough and the beans are fairly well developed, I hull them out and just cook them with the snap beans instead of tossing that overripe pod with the beans still in it. When I cook snap beans I set the timer at 9 minutes, that's long enough for me with what I've always called shelly beans.

 

[HmooseK]

@flowerbug touched on something @heirloomgal. The example I’m going to give is Lima Beans.

The “Shelly Stage” Lima is a light green bean and to my palate is a horrible tasting bitter bean. That being said, lots of people love them. When that bean makes it to the dried stage, I call it a butter bean and I’ll I throw ya in a headlock to wrestle a bowl away from ya. Hahahaaa.


On the leather britches, I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. We never did make any as a kid , least wise not that I remember, but they were certainly good tasting. It takes a low simmer and also takes a while to cook back to a tender bean, but the flavor was out of this world.

 

[baymule]

One would wonder how such a pea could be used back in Africa. Who would want one that was basically unshellable. Maybe they pound it in a mortar like millet and knock off the pods and the seed coats in one go.

My guess is that they have never heard of purple hull peas that are darned easy to shell, fresh or dried!

 

[baymule]

@Ridgerunner last year, at the end of green bean season, quite a few got to the almost seed stage. I shelled them out, put in a jar with snap green beans and tomatoes. I canned that jar along with the rest of the jars of green beans. Well guess what? They were delicious and naturally the only jar I did like that.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

My guess is that they have never heard of purple hull peas that are darned easy to shell, fresh or dried!

Given that, (as far as I know) all of the American cowpeas originally came over from Africa with the slave trade, unless Purple Hull was bred here, it would have to be as well, so SOMEONE knows of it.

 

[flowerbug]

One would wonder how such a pea could be used back in Africa. Who would want one that was basically unshellable. Maybe they pound it in a mortar like millet and knock off the pods and the seed coats in one go.

they may be grown as an animal forage crop (those peas in the shells that aren't fully dried are going to be a good protein source) and a backup food crop for extreme times when other foods don't come through. when you're hungry enough you'll have time to pick the beans out. they may also have a way of smashing them and getting them out of the pods that we've not learned yet.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The fact that they showed up in a mix of groundnuts may indicate that they come from somewhere where that is the bean of choice. I'm not sure how those are hulled en masse (the fact that they are only one or two seeds per pod means doing it by hand probably isn't efficient)

 

[heirloomgal]

@flowerbug touched on something @heirloomgal. The example I’m going to give is Lima Beans.

The “Shelly Stage” Lima is a light green bean and to my palate is a horrible tasting bitter bean. That being said, lots of people love them. When that bean makes it to the dried stage, I call it a butter bean and I’ll I throw ya in a headlock to wrestle a bowl away from ya. Hahahaaa.


On the leather britches, I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. We never did make any as a kid , least wise not that I remember, but they were certainly good tasting. It takes a low simmer and also takes a while to cook back to a tender bean, but the flavor was out of this world.

@HmooseK Is there a bean you could recommend for me to grow so I could try to make some leather britches? Would any bean do? I'm all in for beans that taste out of this world

 

[heirloomgal]

The “Shelly Stage” Lima is a light green bean and to my palate is a horrible tasting bitter bean. That being said, lots of people love them. When that bean makes it to the dried stage, I call it a butter bean and I’ll I throw ya in a headlock to wrestle a bowl away from ya. Hahahaaa.

It occurred to me as I read this that I may have once or twice sampled shelly beans, but I'm not sure. In the freezer section at the grocer's they sell bags of lima beans, very pale green. The cooking time is quite short, 10 or 15 minutes I think. Were those shellies? I thought they were passable, but there was some kind of unusual flatness in taste. Definitely didn't taste like any dry bean I've had, but I haven't eaten much dried limas either.

 

[flowerbug]

It occurred to me as I read this that I may have once or twice sampled shelly beans, but I'm not sure. In the freezer section at the grocer's they sell bags of lima beans, very pale green. The cooking time is quite short, 10 or 15 minutes I think. Were those shellies? I thought they were passable, but there was some kind of unusual flatness in taste. Definitely didn't taste like any dry bean I've had, but I haven't eaten much dried limas either.

yes, those are shellies.