What you can do is closely space 4 inches apart Tepary Beans, about 40 or 50 plants.
When you collect your harvest, mix them in with your Pinto Beans after cooking them separate. (They cook up a bit faster). What you will get is a new flavor treat, and a whole lot more protein.
I know some people really like their beans, but I find growing dried beans just not worth the effort or space. (Marshal, don't have a heart attack) There is something to knowing where your beans come from, but I really can't tell a difference in taste or quality in mine or store-bought. With dried beans, being fresh does not matter, unlike a lot of the stuff we grow. If you want a variety you can't buy, then that could be another reason to grow them.
I grow Black Turtle Beans because my wife askes me to, but I'd prefer buying a bag at the store from the space and effort it takes.
I grow a lot of Blue Lake green beans, bush and pole, for green beans. After I can all the green beans I want, I keep one area of pole beans picked to eat on green beans until frost but let the rest go to seed. I pick these as dried beans. They are a lot like dried navy beans to me.
Pole beans have to be hand picked. I don't know a way around that. It is very time consuming to pick them and hull them out. With bush beans, you can pull them up when the season is over, so that can be easier. But I pick my Black Turtle when they first start to dry in the pod a bit. I put them on screens to finish drying. If I get them early enough, I can get a second crop off them. So those early ones are hand-hulled too.
If you have a good place and few enough bush beans, you can hang them in the dry when they are finished and beat them in a barrel of something to help harvest them. But I can't do that. I have too many and not enough space to hang. If I leave them in the garden and it rains, the beans sprout or rot, so I have to hand pick them. If you live in a climate where they can dry in the field without worrying about rain you have more options.
I got party through reading your post and had to comment immediately. record fast typing!
Yes, fresh dried beans do taste MUCH better than those hanging around for weeks or months or even years.
Yes, there is a big difference in varieties of dried beans.
Ya gotta know beans about yer beans.
Want to boil up some fresh dent corn? It might work in a pinch, but dent corn is not made for fresh eating.
Anasazi dry beans are so much better in soup than Cherokee Trail of Tears...Hidatsa Shield Figure cooks up in a soup with a ham so great, especially fresh dried.
Kid, ever make Leather britches? Don't do it with Jade Beans. Use a good Cutshort. They'll still be good next spring.