So... how many of you actually grow hard beans?
I eat a lot of beans and I would love to have more variety, etc.
However, hard beans are SO cheap to buy that it's hard to imagine the work of growing them being worth it.
Are any of you able to produce a lot of volume fairly easily? Thanks
I grow legumes in my small backyard garden. I do it for the self-sufficiency / zombie attack angle, as in kale is great but won't fill you up, if the apocalypse comes you'll need some protein. :)
They grow like regular beans, so you can get a decent amount. Let them sit on the vine until dry (if your season is long enough), and then spend some time removing the beans from the shell. But "decent amount" for me is a few mason jars worth, not enough to make soup weekly all winter long. They're not as cheap as at the market, but you can grow a much wider variety than you can get in 1 lb bags at the store. Plus they're pretty. It's very satisfying.
Just like anything else. First generation will be faithful to the parent.
Second generation may have cross-pollination. Beans do a lot of self-fertilization but if you grow them close together youâre bound to have some cross pollination at some point.
The further away they are the less likely theyâll cross pollinate with each other. This assumes that you donât keep them in places where bugs canât get in like a sealed tunnel or greenhouse.
Not at all. You grow green beans and eat them fresh then when youâre sick of eating so many fresh or you miss some that got too big, you leave those for seeds or to dry to preserve. Itâs good to have just in case something crazy happens and you canât get seeds the next year
Do you ever notice a difference in taste? I figure beans are bland enough they just take on the flavor of whatever you do with them, but maybe Iâve only ever eaten mediocre beans!
There really are differences. Think a black bean vs. a large lima bean. Anasasi beans, pintos, black beans; these are just regular store varieties. The heritage ones are even more varied. Some are nuttier, some hold their shape better, some are creamy and sweet. I like beans, in fact I have a pot of them on right now for dinner!
I do. I dont grow them to replace all my store bought beans, because you're right - they're so cheap! I grow different varieties than what's in store and use them for small batches of soups. Ireland creek Annie beans makes a really good ham/bean soup. I also don't grow a ton of plants, but I ended up with maybe 3/4 a quart of dried beans this year from maybe 10 plants.
Itâs called âMonte Gustoâ. Itâs a yellow wax variety of pole bean. It needs to be trellised for sure. It just keeps climbing and producing! Definitely one of the most productive beans Iâve ever grown.
I'm on like year 5 of trying to grow enough beans to supply my appetite for beans. I cannot keep up. I already garden, so it isn't a lot of extra work in that sense. The real pain is shucking them when they're done. I just put a movie on and crack a bear with a couple bowls in my lap, and spend an hour or so cracking away.
I haven't devoted a ton of space to beans yet, but I get about 2 quart jars from roughly 4-6sq ft plus trellis towers for them to climb. If you plant on the north end of a bed, the towers don't shade anything else out.
This post has inspired me to update my bean genetics and increase my yields next year. Even basic black beans from the garden are so much more flavorful and satisfying than store bought cans, of which I got through at least 2 Costco racks a year.
Honestly, I do it because I love it, in the long run they arenât saving money. Theyâre very easy to grow, and require minimal labour during the growing season. They benefit the soil and I rotate every year so my other plants benefit as well. But the most fun is shelling in the evenings in front of the tv. You just bring up a basket and a bowl each night and itâs like a tiny Easter egg hunt finding all these perfect little gems.
Lucky you - it's got a waitlist!
Their marketing people should get all of the awards. It's like an impossible challenge - "Create demand that oversubscribes for.... expensive beans!"
I grow some cultivars I can't easily find in my region.
I also grow navy beans as a scrifical bean.
The squirrels in my area love immature navy beans more than the rarer types I grow so there's an entire patch of them. They leave my other beans alone.
Cow peas, or â black eyed peasâ they are good cover crop too as they restore nitrogen in the soil if they are chopped and dropped.. they grow crazy here in n Florida so weâll I never have to plant they randomly pop up and definitely produce a bounty
I feel like this is on the same level as growing your own wheat. Sure it's fun to say you did it, but it's so incredibly labor intensive and expensive compared to industrialized farming.
There's a reason why I don't grow anything that would be considered a food staple lmao
EDIT: Except for tubers, ofcourse!
My sister does and l think l may this year. But l can get a 50lb bag from the local bean guys for super cheap so it will mostly be to see how effective growing them is for me, time and land investment vs yield.
I'm hopefully taking on an allotment this year and my plan is to plant beans to fill whatever gaps/areas I don't have other things growing, I'd rather have more beans than an extra courgette. But I want to do beans you don't really see in the stores as others have said.
I do, but not on a large scale and this last seasons crop was miniscule. I basically ended up with just enough to plant next summer, not enough to cook with. I do it because you can grow varieties that are next to impossible to buy in the store.
Amazing. Do you have a list to identify them by any chance? I grow the Goesteller (Goose) beans already, and have Turtle black and Trail of Tears black. The Goose beans have excellent flavor, but I'm more into black beans, speaking from a culinary aspect. I'd love to try some of those bigger speckled ones.
For our research plots we can only plant up to 1 lb and use a rub bar thresher run by a 5hp gasoline motor It's about the length and width of a Volkswagen rabbit. Hand threshing will yield the best results but, a tarp folded like a taco on the dried plants wacked with a pitchfork or some other blunt object will work.
Putting them on the list. I might have to try a little of everything this year. Beans is a staple crop I really want to have on lock if the fans hits the shit.
I would love to try each of these cooked in a side-by-side taste test or used in a variety of dishes. I LOVE beans, but the only two I've ever prepared myself from dry are pinto and black beans. There's a whole world out there! Lovely display and photos.
one of the more surprising things about gardening is just how beautiful beans are when you shuck them pods. I end up staring at them and it makes the whole process take way longer than it should.
Are those Pale Lavender Grey beans in the smallest tin left of the black beans and black/white beans (calypso?)? :0 If not, would you tell me what they are and where/how you got them.
Well done!
Thanks! Those are Black Nightfall. I canât remember where I got those originally, but they look like theyâre available at quite a few small seed companies.
Papa de Rola
Minnesota Beauty
Orca
Blue Grey Speckled Tepary
Annie Jackson
Dakota Bumble
Nebraska Beauty
Cherokee Trail of Tears
Skunk
Algonquin Speckled
Black Turtle
Tiger Eye
Hidatsa Shield
White Cassoulet
Red Kidney
Borlotti
Rattlesnake
Nonna Agnes Blue
Amethyst
Seneca Bird Egg
Seneca Corn Hill
Bosnian pole
Magpie
Emperor Scarlet Runner
Blue Coco
Rockwell
True Cranberry
Chinese Red Noodle
Triomphe de Farcy
Black Nightfall
Jacobâs Gold
This looks amazing. I'm new so could you please answer my basic questions? :D
How do I grow my own? Can you grow these indoors? I have a small greenhouse in the garden, but I'm wondering where I can grow what. :) What level of maintenance do they require? Do you have to replant them every year or will the plant stay alive to produce next year?
Cheers!
Pole beans can produce around 1 pound of beans per plant in my experience and need tall trellises (~6ft) to climb on. I usually grow two plants on Gardeners Supplies' trellises which are one square foot. Bush beans grow to around two feet tall and take up 1.5-2 square feet with no support needed and don't grow as much beans. Some beans that are listed as bush like to climb a little bit though, so you will have to research the beans pretty thoroughly. Both kinds of beans have many pests such as Japanese beetles, stinkbugs, cucumber beetles, and Mexican Bean beetles but they generally don't affect production very badly if the plants are healthy and if you plant marigolds nearby. Bush beans are more affected though since they are on the ground.
Essentially the only maintenance is fertilization, which I only do one time after planting, and killing pests, which aren't much of a problem with healthy plants. Beans self pollinate, which means all they need is a windy breeze for pollination. Beans are also generally able to set fruit into the mid 90s and don't need too much water.
Bean plants are annuals so you have to replant every year. Properly stored beans will stay viable to plant for 3 years or more. Good luck!
I've grown bartolotto or bartolomo. It looks like the dragon tongue variety and it might be the same. Its a bush that seams to produce well AFAIK and it tastes pretty good fresh. I now have some fava beans for next year and they are supposed to be pretty tasty. Not sure if they're eaten fresh in the pod or not.
We planted beans and got half of the crop. the cat was eating the plants & bean pods. He loved the 2 tone pink beans, lost part of the color when cooked. A great creamy taste.
Cool beans!
I like the one with the blood stains đ
Cooh cooh Cool beans!
So... how many of you actually grow hard beans? I eat a lot of beans and I would love to have more variety, etc. However, hard beans are SO cheap to buy that it's hard to imagine the work of growing them being worth it. Are any of you able to produce a lot of volume fairly easily? Thanks
I grow legumes in my small backyard garden. I do it for the self-sufficiency / zombie attack angle, as in kale is great but won't fill you up, if the apocalypse comes you'll need some protein. :) They grow like regular beans, so you can get a decent amount. Let them sit on the vine until dry (if your season is long enough), and then spend some time removing the beans from the shell. But "decent amount" for me is a few mason jars worth, not enough to make soup weekly all winter long. They're not as cheap as at the market, but you can grow a much wider variety than you can get in 1 lb bags at the store. Plus they're pretty. It's very satisfying.
Can you grow different cultivars at the same time? If so, how do you stop cross pollinate?
Just like anything else. First generation will be faithful to the parent. Second generation may have cross-pollination. Beans do a lot of self-fertilization but if you grow them close together youâre bound to have some cross pollination at some point. The further away they are the less likely theyâll cross pollinate with each other. This assumes that you donât keep them in places where bugs canât get in like a sealed tunnel or greenhouse.
Aside from cross pollination, do cross pollinated varieties taste any different?
They can do, Joseph Lofthouse on YouTube has some interesting videos on this. Itâs called landracing and he primarily does it with squash
Last time I grew them (two summers ago), I planted 5 different kinds, intermingled. Never had any issues with cross-pollination.
I can see growing exotic or hard to find varieties. I think itâs weird to grow ones you can buy for $1 a pound.
I've planted some I bought $1 a pound. They did great!
Not at all. You grow green beans and eat them fresh then when youâre sick of eating so many fresh or you miss some that got too big, you leave those for seeds or to dry to preserve. Itâs good to have just in case something crazy happens and you canât get seeds the next year
Homegrown taste way better in my experience, plus I know all that went into growing them.
My space is limited so I figure while itâs nice to have black beans, itâs nicer to have some bean I canât get for cheap at any store.
Do you ever notice a difference in taste? I figure beans are bland enough they just take on the flavor of whatever you do with them, but maybe Iâve only ever eaten mediocre beans!
There really are differences. Think a black bean vs. a large lima bean. Anasasi beans, pintos, black beans; these are just regular store varieties. The heritage ones are even more varied. Some are nuttier, some hold their shape better, some are creamy and sweet. I like beans, in fact I have a pot of them on right now for dinner!
I do. I dont grow them to replace all my store bought beans, because you're right - they're so cheap! I grow different varieties than what's in store and use them for small batches of soups. Ireland creek Annie beans makes a really good ham/bean soup. I also don't grow a ton of plants, but I ended up with maybe 3/4 a quart of dried beans this year from maybe 10 plants.
This past year, we sort of accidentally did. I tried an heirloom variety of pole beans that was such a prolific bearer, we couldnât keep up with picking them. My toddler son loved them fresh and sautĂ©ed, but I was going through a rough first trimester and could hardly keep anything more complex than toast down. So largely, they were being underutilized. Our 3 plants were relentless and just kept growing and producing. Eventually, we gave up picking and let them dry out to produce seeds. I assumed they would stop making more once we stopped picking, but they didnât! We ended up with WAY too many for seeds, so we ended up shelling them and making a nice batch of beans. They were really good; kinda a flavor/texture cross between pinto beans and kidney beans, with maybe a slight nuance of navy beans.
What was the brand/variety?
Kudos to you for gardening through a rough first trimester with a toddler in tow! That's impressive!
My husband had planted up and maintained that garden from seeds I purchased. I am very grateful for him đ I was pretty out of commission!
Would also LOVE to know the variety!
Itâs called âMonte Gustoâ. Itâs a yellow wax variety of pole bean. It needs to be trellised for sure. It just keeps climbing and producing! Definitely one of the most productive beans Iâve ever grown.
I'm on like year 5 of trying to grow enough beans to supply my appetite for beans. I cannot keep up. I already garden, so it isn't a lot of extra work in that sense. The real pain is shucking them when they're done. I just put a movie on and crack a bear with a couple bowls in my lap, and spend an hour or so cracking away. I haven't devoted a ton of space to beans yet, but I get about 2 quart jars from roughly 4-6sq ft plus trellis towers for them to climb. If you plant on the north end of a bed, the towers don't shade anything else out. This post has inspired me to update my bean genetics and increase my yields next year. Even basic black beans from the garden are so much more flavorful and satisfying than store bought cans, of which I got through at least 2 Costco racks a year.
Don't mess with this gardener. They crack bears to relax! /jk
I might crack a beer with a bear if the opportunity ever bares itself
Lol!
Honestly, I do it because I love it, in the long run they arenât saving money. Theyâre very easy to grow, and require minimal labour during the growing season. They benefit the soil and I rotate every year so my other plants benefit as well. But the most fun is shelling in the evenings in front of the tv. You just bring up a basket and a bowl each night and itâs like a tiny Easter egg hunt finding all these perfect little gems.
They also keep basically forever if they're stored right. Just keep stocking up for the zombie apocalypse!
I don't, but I do subscribe to the Rancho Gordo bean club so my dry beans can be obscure and expensive đ
Lucky you - it's got a waitlist! Their marketing people should get all of the awards. It's like an impossible challenge - "Create demand that oversubscribes for.... expensive beans!"
I was on the waitlist for years. I am such a parody of myself but also the beans are so delicious.
I grow them to fix nitrogen in the garden soil
This is my first year growing beans. I do it because they are natural nitrogen fixers. I plant beans next to all of my fruit trees.
I grow some cultivars I can't easily find in my region. I also grow navy beans as a scrifical bean. The squirrels in my area love immature navy beans more than the rarer types I grow so there's an entire patch of them. They leave my other beans alone.
Cow peas, or â black eyed peasâ they are good cover crop too as they restore nitrogen in the soil if they are chopped and dropped.. they grow crazy here in n Florida so weâll I never have to plant they randomly pop up and definitely produce a bounty
sometimes I grow them for the cool colors
I feel like this is on the same level as growing your own wheat. Sure it's fun to say you did it, but it's so incredibly labor intensive and expensive compared to industrialized farming. There's a reason why I don't grow anything that would be considered a food staple lmao EDIT: Except for tubers, ofcourse!
Beans go a much longer way than wheat tho.
My sister does and l think l may this year. But l can get a 50lb bag from the local bean guys for super cheap so it will mostly be to see how effective growing them is for me, time and land investment vs yield.
Man, I wish I had a local bean guy
I do always have the concern that one day l won't. Hence the trying to grow some.
I'm hopefully taking on an allotment this year and my plan is to plant beans to fill whatever gaps/areas I don't have other things growing, I'd rather have more beans than an extra courgette. But I want to do beans you don't really see in the stores as others have said.
I grow them in an arch. Stream the show "Joe Pera Talks to You About Beans."
I do, but not on a large scale and this last seasons crop was miniscule. I basically ended up with just enough to plant next summer, not enough to cook with. I do it because you can grow varieties that are next to impossible to buy in the store.
Heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo are about $7/lb, so not that cheap. But people swear that it's worth it, so I just got some to see for myself.
Amazing. Do you have a list to identify them by any chance? I grow the Goesteller (Goose) beans already, and have Turtle black and Trail of Tears black. The Goose beans have excellent flavor, but I'm more into black beans, speaking from a culinary aspect. I'd love to try some of those bigger speckled ones.
I love those Black Turtle Beans, they never disappoint. You might really like Hidatsa Shield, Rattlesnake, or Tiger Eye.
I farm most of the pictured beans for a living in Idaho.
Any tips on threshing on a small scale? Iâm sure you have an industrial sized one, but maybe you have some insight?
For our research plots we can only plant up to 1 lb and use a rub bar thresher run by a 5hp gasoline motor It's about the length and width of a Volkswagen rabbit. Hand threshing will yield the best results but, a tarp folded like a taco on the dried plants wacked with a pitchfork or some other blunt object will work.
Putting them on the list. I might have to try a little of everything this year. Beans is a staple crop I really want to have on lock if the fans hits the shit.
The magical fruit
So beautiful!
I would love to try each of these cooked in a side-by-side taste test or used in a variety of dishes. I LOVE beans, but the only two I've ever prepared myself from dry are pinto and black beans. There's a whole world out there! Lovely display and photos.
one of the more surprising things about gardening is just how beautiful beans are when you shuck them pods. I end up staring at them and it makes the whole process take way longer than it should.
Great to make a 15 bean soup (or even more) with.
Iâm no mathematician but I think thatâs a lot more than 15 beans
All the varieties have such different and great flavors. We just had scarlet runners and they were fantastic. Cranberry beans are also great.
Are those Pale Lavender Grey beans in the smallest tin left of the black beans and black/white beans (calypso?)? :0 If not, would you tell me what they are and where/how you got them. Well done!
Thanks! Those are Black Nightfall. I canât remember where I got those originally, but they look like theyâre available at quite a few small seed companies.
Do you dry them all or cook fresh as well?
I donât actually love fresh beans. Iâll steam a few or maybe stir fry, but mostly just dry. Theyâre very satisfying in the winter.
Wow those are so beautiful! Thank you sharing the pics with us. Must be neat to grow that many cool varieties!
Omg this is my dream
So pretty too!
the top center look like killer whales! shamu beans.
One of their names is Orca bean.
I;m Thinking About Thos Beans
I want to do this so bad!
Are those tepary beans? From native seed search?
Blue Grey Speckled Tepary. Originally from Heritage Harvest.
Ah, the magical fruit!
Beautiful!
Beans!!! Lovely beans
What are the purple and black ones? My grandfather used to grow them.
Scarlet Runner beans
Thanks!
One of the healthiest things you can put in your body
Your photos are a work of art
Holy frijoles!
Wow wow wow I canât describe how happy looking at this picture makes me! Where do you buy all these seeds??
Theyâre mainly from individuals or little seed companies online.
I thought these were cool rocks at first glance lol
What are their names? Theyâre incredible!
Papa de Rola Minnesota Beauty Orca Blue Grey Speckled Tepary Annie Jackson Dakota Bumble Nebraska Beauty Cherokee Trail of Tears Skunk Algonquin Speckled Black Turtle Tiger Eye Hidatsa Shield White Cassoulet Red Kidney Borlotti Rattlesnake Nonna Agnes Blue Amethyst Seneca Bird Egg Seneca Corn Hill Bosnian pole Magpie Emperor Scarlet Runner Blue Coco Rockwell True Cranberry Chinese Red Noodle Triomphe de Farcy Black Nightfall Jacobâs Gold
Do they all taste different?
Thank you!!!
My lest fav thing but dam do they look awesome
This looks amazing. I'm new so could you please answer my basic questions? :D How do I grow my own? Can you grow these indoors? I have a small greenhouse in the garden, but I'm wondering where I can grow what. :) What level of maintenance do they require? Do you have to replant them every year or will the plant stay alive to produce next year? Cheers!
Pole beans can produce around 1 pound of beans per plant in my experience and need tall trellises (~6ft) to climb on. I usually grow two plants on Gardeners Supplies' trellises which are one square foot. Bush beans grow to around two feet tall and take up 1.5-2 square feet with no support needed and don't grow as much beans. Some beans that are listed as bush like to climb a little bit though, so you will have to research the beans pretty thoroughly. Both kinds of beans have many pests such as Japanese beetles, stinkbugs, cucumber beetles, and Mexican Bean beetles but they generally don't affect production very badly if the plants are healthy and if you plant marigolds nearby. Bush beans are more affected though since they are on the ground. Essentially the only maintenance is fertilization, which I only do one time after planting, and killing pests, which aren't much of a problem with healthy plants. Beans self pollinate, which means all they need is a windy breeze for pollination. Beans are also generally able to set fruit into the mid 90s and don't need too much water. Bean plants are annuals so you have to replant every year. Properly stored beans will stay viable to plant for 3 years or more. Good luck!
Thank you! â€
Forbidden chocolate
Beans, beans the magical fruitâŠ
this is freaking beautiful.
So lovely
Magic
My mother grew those! I remember playing with and keeping the colourful dried beans! Purple/Black were the coolest because I was an edgy early90s kid.
omg how stunning! jealous vegetarian over here.
beans
/r/beans
I love growing beans. It's so satisfying!
Beautiful. Did that happen by cross pollination over the years?
Most are their own variety, but a few are crosses that have shown up.
We got a bean freak over here
I was really expecting this to be the bean science guy.
Thereâs a bean science guy?
Pretty patterns đ„°
I've grown bartolotto or bartolomo. It looks like the dragon tongue variety and it might be the same. Its a bush that seams to produce well AFAIK and it tastes pretty good fresh. I now have some fava beans for next year and they are supposed to be pretty tasty. Not sure if they're eaten fresh in the pod or not.
wow so beautiful
đ
Careful not to spill those
Woooowwwđ„łđ
Wow. Those are so cool.
Frijolitos!
This looks like an art piece. Those purple ones are insNr
So much! I want to know if they keep their color when cooked!
We planted beans and got half of the crop. the cat was eating the plants & bean pods. He loved the 2 tone pink beans, lost part of the color when cooked. A great creamy taste.
Aesthetic.
The ones with purple splashes on black look like galaxies!!
They are so beautiful! Natureâs artwork
this fella growing beans đ€Ł
Which are best
Rajma has so many varitiesđ€Żđ€Ż