Drying Beans

[rmonge00]

Hi,

I am letting some of my beans grow past their prime as green beans so I can harvest them as dried beans. Now the plants are dead and the beans are on the ground, but they are not dried out as it is very wet here (near Seattle)... Should I bting them in to dry?? Is this possible?

Thanks!

Ryan

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd bring them in and dry them out of the weather. Otherwise they will either rot or sprout.

I built a frame maybe 4' square and put screen wire on the bottom. Elevate it so air can get under it and stir the beans a time or two a day. I hull them before I dry them but maybe you don't have to?

 

[digitS']

Sure Ryan!

Put the pods on a screen or in a very loosely woven basket. Put them in a sunny window. You need lots of air circulation around them.

It may take a couple weeks for the pods to completely dry so that they crumble when you rub them together between your hands. (Wearing gloves will help with that.) You can also shell those pods long before they are dry but you have to dry the seed thoroughly, anyway. Mold will be the enemy and I'm really sure how to deal with that if it develops.

Good Luck!

Steve

 

[ksacres]

I can remember when I was very young that there would always be strings of beans above the wood burning stove. It would always be in the fall and sometimes they would hang for weeks. I think the heat from the stove helped dry them?? I shelled lots of things when I was a little girl, but danged if I remember the details. :/