This year, I stored a few of my own dry beans, and while harvesting them was not my favorite chore, I love the idea of having them on hand for winter soups.
Beans are an awesome source of vegetable protein, and once you get them out of the pod, they are so super easy to put up. They make for a really cost-effective crop you can enjoy through the winter.
Dry Beans are ready to harvest when the skin is paper thin, and you can shake the pod and hear a rattling sound. You will have to remove the beans from the pod–which you can do by splitting them open and removing them by hand, or you can turn the whole plant upside down in a bucket and bang it against the side, causing the beans to spill out into the bottom of the bucket. {You can throw the skin right back into your compost pile.}
After you get all of the beans out of the pod, the beans need to be cleaned and sorted. If the beans are split open, they need to be weeded out of the “store for winter” pile. To clean them, you can just use a blow dryer and blow off the debris. {If the beans are still soft, spread them on a cookie tray and allow them to dry a little longer.} Before you store them, freeze the beans overnight to kill any tiny bugs that might be still lurking.
To store dried beans, just place them in an airtight container {I think canning jars with a latch lid work awesome} and keep them in a cool, dry place away from sunlight.
Do you store DRY beans for the winter? What do you use them for?
~Mavis
Mandi says
I grew a ton of dry beans this year for the first time and I’ve been waiting to see you post on how yours did! I also grew Tiger’s Eye and Calypso from Botanical Interests, as well as 3 other heirloom varieties, pintos and Horto Semi-bush (otherwise known as cranberry beans). So far they have been my favorite thing I’ve grown! I didn’t wait until the plants completely died off to start picking the dry pods and that seems to have been an okay thing, as quite a few of my beans have starting putting on a second crop! One of my varieties was a pole bean and that was the exception as the plants are just completely dying now that the bean pods have dried. I’ve been shelling them onto food dehydrator trays with the herb insert and have them tucked away in a corner in my living room to continue their drying. I can’t wait to see all my jars of dried beans lined up on a shelf!
Tangela says
I was wanting to grow pinto beans to see if they were any better than the ones I buy in the store. I know home grown produce is WAY better than store bought, but since the beans have to dry on the bush and not picked prematurely, I didn’t know if they would be any better or not. Anyway, to the point. I have not seen any pinto bean “seed” – at least not the heirloom kind. I’ve seen that Seed Savers Exchange has pinto “cooking” beans and it was confusing to me that you could get cooking beans from them, but not seed. Isn’t it the same?
Jackie M. says
In Canada, heritageharvestseed.com sell heritage pinto seeds (Ga Ga Hut Pinto and Frijol de Seco Pinto). I am pretty certain rareseeds.com would also sell them. I searched pinto on their website and came up with Bolita Bean.
Mary says
Just go to the store and buy a bag of points and plant them
Sierracara says
I bought some organic Dry pinto beans at the market to eat and when I did, I saved about 40 seeds to put in with a wet paper towel, all of mine sprouted after a couple of days, I planted them and they grew beautifully. I know have about 4 or 5 pounds Of beans, it takes about 3 months from start to dry, you let them dry on the bush, but don’t wait too long or they will open and fall to the ground. Love growing stuff this Way!
Susie says
Tangela, the bean inside the pod is also the seed. Save some of your beans to plant next year. I bought 1 lb of organic pintos from the store and used those to plant. They don’t cost as much as the seed for the seed companies. I saved enough of the beans to plant a row and cooked the rest.
Tracy L. says
Mavis,
I would love to try this next year. What kinds have you tried that were successful for our area?
Mavis Butterfield says
This year I’m drying Jacob’s Cattle Beans and Calypso beans. In the past I’ve dried cranberry beans, fava beans and a few others.
Herdog says
Does it matter what type of bean you can dry? Does it have to be a ‘dry bean’ variety? I think one of my pole bean is blue lake and was wondering if I could dry and use in soup? Any thoughts? Thanks lots – Hey that rhymes
Mavis Butterfield says
I’ve never dried blue lake beans before but I say go for it! 🙂
Tessa says
I haven’t grown my own beans, but I use dry beans all the time. I usually process two pounds at a time in my crockpot with plain water and then freeze them in two cup packages so I can pull them out and use them in soup, chili, pot pie, mexican foods, etc. I usually get about 10 cups out of a 2 pound bag of dry beans. I make up white beans, black beans, red beans, and then I also make homemade baked beans using my Gram’s recipe which calls for yellow eye beans. It all goes in the freezer and allows me to avoid using canned beans. It’s super cheap and easy!
Terry K says
I am so new at this gardening thing that I am almost embarrassed to ask some of my questions. I buy dried pintos, kidney beans and white beans (Great Northerns and navy beans), and I realize they have to come from somewhere, but never gave it much thought. What to you plant to get these? Can you plant the bean you bought from the store? I just went to the Botanical Interests website and put in ‘kidney bean’ and could swear I heard this machine laugh at me. What do I plant?
Mavis Butterfield says
The beans in the picture are Jacob’s Cattle Beans. Not a silly question. You can dry any kind of bean you want. 🙂
Anne says
Hi, someone planted some beans here and left. I didn’t know what kind they are so I was looking for similar images. The pictures on your site are a perfect fit, including the pods. You told someone they were Jacob’s Cattle Beans but when I looked up other images of them, they didn’t look the same at all. After much searching, I think they are Ojo de Cabra (Eye of the Goat). Can you double check that?
Mavis Butterfield says
I was referring to a previous year. The beans in the photo of this post are Tiger Eye beans.
Elizabeth says
I think this is so cool. I may add dried beans to my list for next year. We don’t use beans as much as we should but I llknow we would if we grew them ourselves.
Nancy says
I have grown calico beans (brought over by my in laws from Italy years ago) and black beans in the past. this year I grew pinto beans so we can make our own refried beans.
Lauren says
We are going to try this for the 2014 growing season. When you pick the beans that have been dried on the vine, do you have to dry them again indoors, or just freeze them for a bit before you store them? I am getting conflicting information and am confused now. You just freeze yours right?
Thank you
Healthy Lifestyle says
I’ve done peas this way, could you do pinto beans that way also? I guess you’d have to let them dry more first, then freeze overnight, and store in jars with latch lid?
Thx for sharing this with us home gardeners!!
Kathy Bogus says
Hi –So some of my Navy Beans have Split and you mentioned to weed them out –are they good to Dry and use for Next years Seeds to Plant
Cindy says
You could eat those or put them on the compost pile, but they would not germinate. You need whole seeds for that.