I grow these every year and line my fenced-in garden with the plants. They deter rodents from tunneling under the fence. It's easy to grow them. Just put them in seed starting mix, one per 3" cell or pot, about an inch deep, 2 weeks before last frost date in your area. They grow tall very fast, so don't start them too early. Harden off and plant out after last frost. You can save the seed from year to year. Let the pods turn brown and dry, then crumble them to get seeds out. Wear gloves...pods are very prickly! Have fun. I like the red variety.

Oh. I thought different vegies needed different ratios of salt and water, for safety reasons. Is that all wrong? Different veggies may benefit flavor-wise from different brine levels but that is a matter of taste. As long as you use one of the recommended salt brine levels - see salt brine charts referenced above in Joy of Pickling (JOP) for example - then you can safely ferment any vegetable or mixture of vegetables. This, of course, assumes you use the proper fermenting techniques too - enough brine to cover the amount of vegetables, time, air temps, cover, skimming, etc. Dave PS: Randy - feel free to start a new thread. That way the OP won'r be getting all the emails if it turns into a long discussion. :) This post was edited by digdirt on Sat, Oct 26, 13 at 11:16

Mermaidinthegarden said: "Ooh, I would like to join this one too! I don't have very many varieties yet, but beans are what got me started on heirlooms." and "I was so excited to see the bubble envelope in the mail today, but .... nothing left inside but my list. :-(" Now that there is a damn shame, as they say. I would be more than happy to share some of my bounty from this swap. Mchill320 did an awesome job, and it will be years before I could grow them all. If interested, send me your mailing info (and your wish list, if you want) and I'll see what I can do. Rick This post was edited by rdback on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 15:57

DW has been helping me with the dry beans. Dry beans were once almost completely unknown to her. It's been a slow process. However, she has developed an interest. Especially after I got back to growing beans for chili and soup. BTW, she has only been casually interested in edamame but the kidney beans seem to have captured her enthusiasm. It may mostly be the colors of Jacob's Cattle beans and Burgundy Bolita. (You can see both of those varieties in the thread on hot peppers Zach has posted.) She isn't likely to easily admit that just as she won't be heaping praise on my recipes unless there is one that she likes and I'm not cooking it often enough or, I stand in the corner and pout ... manipulative, ain't I? She stayed right with me shelling them and helped me gather more from the garden ... actually, since she is so adept at these sorts of things, it's really me helping her. Quickly I fall behind and she rounds the bed and begins picking back towards me ... The Bolita will be the most anticipated new variety. It's a half-runner and I'm really not sure how much trouble a passel of the plants might amount to. They are early and fairly prolific. There were few seeds sown but we will get a taste and have more in 2016 if the flavor pleases. Cascade Giant pole beans may be what got DW started down this avenue. I'd grown them for several years as green beans but with so many bush beans, neglected them one season. We had so much seed that we decided to try some in soup. With those heavy pods and small seeds, Cascade Giant are a bother to shell but the taste was delicious! These rattlesnake-type beans are popular as dual purpose and it's understandable. By comparison, it's easy to shell Jacob's Cattle beans and they are also very good. A world of beans is out there and it will be fun for us to try a few new ones every year. Steve