[Fleecewife]

Part of the plan for 2018 is to eat less meat, also egg and cheese.  This leaves fish, nuts and pulses.  Fish I rely on my son to stock the freezer from his fishing trips, nuts haven't done too well here so far, but pulses I can do.  I already grow more than enough for eating fresh and freezing, but I want to grow some for drying.  I've ordered Cherokee Trail of Tears and two kinds of soup pea (Welsh and Latvian) from Real Seeds, and I have my eye on Orca beans (Yin Yang), and climbing Borlotti, but I want to try as many varieties as possible this year so I can concentrate on those that do well in the future.


I detest butter beans (from school meals), and I'm not contemplating things like lentils, but I would love suggestions for other pulses and varieties which you have tried growing and cooking please 

[Fleecewife]

Wot?  Nobody?


I suppose dried beans are so cheap to buy that it's hardly worth growing them really.
Anyway, I've ordered many different types, and I could even grow some from the store, but I'll see how my harvest goes this year.  There won't be a harvest though if I don't find a way to beat the mice to the crop 

[SallyintNorth]

We do dry a few pulses here but I'm not sure it's particularly organised.  I thought there'd be folks with far more knowledge to share!

Let us know what you try and how you get on, FW

[PK]

You can also leave runner beans unpicked then dry the pods in the same way as borlotti beans. I wrote about it here: https://notesfromasuffolksmallhoding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/beans-for-beans.html

[graemeatwellbank]

I had good success with Real Seeds Latvian and Boddington peas this year with several big jars of dried peas in the cupboard. Also lots of good flavour 'Champion of England' peas in the freezer.
Cherokee Trail of Tears was a big disappointment in quantity but not in flavour.
Hope this helps.

[Fleecewife]

Will do Sally 


Thank you PK and graemeatwellbank - helpful comments.  I did grow the Cherokee beans one year and the crop was woeful, but we were eating them as pods.  I'm hoping I have got better at growing beans since then and they will do better.  Time will tell.


Latvian and Boddington peas are among those I've bought to try this year.  Glad to hear they produce well.  How did they turn out when cooked?


I also dried some runner bean seeds one year but didn't use them - I'm a bit underconfident about all the boiling rapidly to kill the toxins - which beans need that and which don't?  For example if you pod beans and freeze them or use them fresh, do they need all the boiling for 10 mins?  How about sprouted beans - how can you eat them fresh but dried mung beans have to be boiled?  Do the toxins develop during drying?
Some authorities say you should never eat beans raw - well I've been munching on runners straight from the vine all my life and at the time of writing I'm still here.  I detest cold cooked green beans in salad, so raw it will remain.


Another cooking question - do you chuck out the soaking and boiling water from dried beans ie does it contain the toxins, or do you keep it and serve in a stew, as it contain loads of nutrients from the beans which will be lost if thrown out?


So these are the beans I've ordered:
Real Seeds: Boddington and Latvian soup peas, Cherokee Trail of Tears bean (also trying their Huauzontle Aztec broccoli)
DTBrown: Flagrano Flageolet, Borlotto, and Maro mushy peas to use fresh.
Mr Fothergill: Orca bean (Yin Yang)
Chase organics:
Drying beans NOIR and SOISSONS, and Pied Bean (pea bean)


Also all the usual runners and climbing French I normally grow, plus Sugar Snap peas, all to eat fresh, cooked or a few frozen.
Sounds like I'm not going to have room for much other than legumes 

[graemeatwellbank]

FW.
Dried peas only included in soups so you could tell they were peas but nothing distinctive.
My Cherokee beans were too slow to grow big enough for podding and drying. My wife liked them so will be using the remaining left over seeds this year with hopefully better results.

[Fleecewife]

So it would be worth starting them off a bit earlier than I usually put the beans in.  Good tip, thank you 

[Fleecewife]

To make sure I get the cooking bit right, I bought a couple of bean books.  One is written by a woman who goes by the superlative name of Crescent Dragonwagon - how could I resist 

[Anke]

On the no-dig Facebook page just been reading a long discussion about the Organic catalogue being sold to Suttons.. however some interesting small organic seed companies mentioned and maybe you haven't heard of this one.... re. beans I mean


http://www.beansandherbs.co.uk/unusual-and-heirloom-bean-seed/


I probably will order some...

[cloddopper]

Broad beans  in pressure cooked soups  can be cooked  timed to fall apart in things like Minestrone .
 or
If slow cooked rehydrate them for 24 hrs in slightly salted water , lightly boil them for 4 min , empty &  wash in hot water then add to the dish for further cooking .

 Pick the beans  before the pods get big & heavy , that way they taste a lot better when fresh or dried

[Fleecewife]

Thank you Anke - that's a brilliant site for drying beans and I love that you are expected to keep some for your own seed next year, and some to give away.  I've ordered 4 varieties and a couple of other things.
I hadn't seen the discussion on facebook as although we apparently have an account I never look at it.




Thank you cloddopper - I hadn't thought of using a pressure cooker!  Doesn't it smash the beans to bits?


I have tried making some baked beans from an ancient recipe back from when the children were small, but unfortunately the beans were ancient too - 2009!  They really didn't want to cook, which is apparently a symptom of old beans.  The cooked dish was brilliant when it was eventually done.  This is one reason I want to grow my own, to know when they were grown.

[Lesley Silvester]

I always use a pressure cooker as it's about a third of the time. I always understood though that you shouldn't add salt until after cooking. I have a wonderful book called The Bean Book and another Not Just a Load of Old Lentils both by Rose Elliot. Very old now but might still be available. the first tells you how to cook just about every dried bean going.


Just looked and it's still available. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bean-Book-Essential-vegetarian-collection-ebook/dp/B008CB9FS2/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1515362623&sr=8-7&keywords=rose+elliot

[Fleecewife]

Oh dear - if anyone suggests a book I should buy then I do!!  It looks great though - thanks MGM.  It should arrive in a few days so I'm looking forward to that, and I got it for much less than Amazon price 


I don't add salt to anything except a small amount to bread, but yes, I thought you had to add it at the end of cooking.


I chucked out my faithful pressure cooker when I got a posh cooker, but I can see it would be very useful for the long cooking beans need, especially as I don't have an AGA.  I wonder if they would cook on top of the wood burner?

[arobwk]

If I remember correctly, 2016 was the "year of the pulses" and I recall some very interesting Rad 4 articles on varieties of pulses and recipes offered (although I can't remember any of the recipes).
There's been so much else to do, but, reminded by this thread, I really must look into planting some!
Gungo peas are my fav's, but I just checked and don't think they will grow well even in the South West (even if I could find "seed").  Unfortunately, my local Tesco stopped offering Dunn's River labelled canned gungo peas some time ago - it was a very sorry day when I found I couldn't replenish my cupboard stock.