Beans!

One of my favorite garden-related activities is shelling dry beans. I find it such a relaxing process.

My bean sample collection.

This year, I planted five different types of beans: three garden beans (yellow, green, and purple that came as a tricolored seed blend) and two shell beans (Iroquois skunk pole beans and 1500 year old cave beans). I wrote about the garden beans earlier this season, so this post is all about my beautiful shell beans.

The first skunk beans of the season

In years past, I have planted turtle beans and rattlesnake beans. They both have grown well and cook up nicely, but this years was a time to try something new. While shopping for seed online over the winter, the Iroquois skunk beans caught my eye with their lovely black and white pattern. Into my virtual cart they went. I knew I wanted to plant two types of shell beans so I kept browsing. When I saw "1500 year old cave beans" I was intrigued and ordered a pack of those as well. Each of these two types of beans got their own bed and simple twine trellis. They all sprouted and grew quickly. 

Skunk bean plants on July 11.

Cave bean plants on July 11.

Shell beans are wonderful for my lazy gardening style. Once the vines came in, it was just a matter of guiding them to the trellis and plucking the occasional weed from the shadows. We didn't even have many Japanese beetles munching on the leaves this year (which seems rather odd looking back on it now). The skunk beans were the first to start drying. I was able to pick the first few pods to shell in early September then stripped the entire crop in early October.

Still some green leaves but all the pods were dry.

Shelling on the porch with our new executive pod tender.

Look at all those beautiful skunk beans!

The skunk beans were much bigger than the rattlesnake beans I had been used to growing. Their size reminds me of lima beans. They quickly filled up the quart jar I like to use for bean storage. They cooked up very nicely in our InstantPot. They have a nice mild taste and smooth texture while still keeping their shape. 

Just 45 minutes at high pressure and dry beans transform into edible beans.

The 1500 year old cave beans took their time drying. I finally picked them two weeks after I had harvested the skunk beans. Even then, quite a few of the pods were not dry yet. While I am admittedly lazy in my gardening, I am also impatient. So, I picked all the beans, no matter their state of dryness, and put the ones that weren't quite ready in the food dehydrator. That seemed to work well enough. I like to store my dry beans in the freezer for fear that they may not be quite dry enough anyway. I would hate to find my beans had gone moldy in the cupboard when I went to cook them in the depths of winter.

The frost finally finished the leaves but some pods still had some drying to do.

The weather turned cooler so I did the shelling in the living room rather than on the porch. 

We could hear beans falling through the dehydrator trays as the pods dried and split open.

Not a bad haul of cave beans.

I haven't cooked any of the cave beans yet. I wonder if they'll lose their fun mottled patterns when I do. I was pleased to see that the skunk beans held onto some of their markings after being cooked. 

A skunk bean before and after cooking.

I don't know if I'll plant the cave beans again as it was more of a wait for them to be ready to shell. I did really enjoy the skunk beans but there are so many other wonderful types of shell beans still to try. We'll see how I feel while shopping for seed this winter.