I would love to trade for your black castor bean seeds. I have a Rose of Sharon seedling (will have tons of seeds, but are not ready yet), have Canna 'Indian Shot' (small plant, haven't bloomed yet, so no seeds yet), have a very few White Texas Star Hibiscus seeds, have white Baby's Breath seeds, have Orange Noah & Chocolate Rose Silk MG's growing, but no seeds yet, have 4 o'clock 'Broken Colors' and the white with pink splash, have Red Habanero, cherry hot, Hungarian Hot Wax pepper, or see my list. Thank you for your consideration. Don

It's the color from the seeds that the pressure canning forces out of them into the pod skin and the water Green beans also darken when they have dark seeds but not when they have white seeds. I don't like wax beans so never grow them but the only variety I know of that has white seeds are Heirloom Golden Wax and Brittle Wax - both are bush beans. Dave

Are methods in BBB or the NCHFP nearly identical or i S one better than the other? NCHFP is the source that the BBB is based on. Same with all the other approved canning cookbooks. When in doubt then NCHFP is the ultimate source to go by. I noticed that the baked beans recipe bakes for 5-6 hours prior to canning. Why the extreme cooking time compared to plain beans? You are comparing different cooking methods. ;) For example, Baked beans done in a crockpot wouldn't be "baked", they'd be boiled or stewed. Baking and boiling are much lower temp and slower processes than pressure cooking. For example one can cook a whole roast in 30 mins. in a pressure cooker vs. 4-5 hours in the oven. Plus baked beans have all the other added ingredients and the desired end texture is very different from other dried beans. Do different types of beans such as dried limas require less cooking time than, say pintos or kidney ? No. All the same pre-cooking time and all the same processing time. Garbanzos would still need additional cooking time once the jar is opened before pureeing. All canned dried beans will require additional cooking prior to serving. The goal of canning them is to make them safe and shelf-safe, not ready-to-eat out of the jar. I want to do plain dried beans first, limas and garbanzos. Then pre-cook them as called for in the NCHFP instructions, then fill the jars 3/4 full with the pre-cooked beans, fill with boiling water, and process per the instructions. However I don't think you will be happy with the color or the texture of the canned limas. Freezing is much better for them IMO. Dave

No Gautam, I haven't noticed that. However, it was pretty common knowledge, wherever we lived in Mexico, that beans that were more recently harvested cooked more easily. They don't have to boil in order to soften. One way we've cooked beans, when not in any hurry is to bring them up to boiling, cover, turn off the heat, and let them set for about a hour. Then we'd turn the heat back on and cook. I can't remember just how much longer we'd cook them. But they cooked up as if they had been on the heat even for that hour, when in fact they weren't. Also, for anyone who doesn't know it. The best way I know, to tell if a bean is properly done, is to spoon it out of the pot hot, and blow on it. If the bean's skin splits, it's done to perfection! Some people in the USA have told me that they can't cook beans; that they've tried, but that they never get soft. More often than not it's not their fault. They got hold of old beans which may have sat on the shelf for a long time. Those beans sometimes won't soften properly, not matter how long one cooks them. I don't know how well it works. But some Mexican friends have told me that such old beans can be softened if you hang'em in a sack, under the drip line of your house's roof and let them absorb water a day or two before you try cooking them. George PS. Tlatlauqui is at 7500 feet altitude. The place receives about 11 feet of precipitation a year because it is on the Eastern slope of the Sierra Madre Oriente mountains, at just the right place to catch the warm moist air coming off the Veracruz coast. Everything is green and beautiful, especially when the sun comes out. But there were definitely challenges for gardening and for human health.