Is the processing time for pints 75 minutes? Yes for plain beans using the cooking water. Only the weight changes per altitude. If you are under 2000 feet it is 10 or 11 lbs. depending on the type of pressure canner you are using. But with vegetable stock you could be moving into the Soup category and that means the pH would be more low-acid and the 1/2 and 1/2 rule would apply - half liquids and half solids? Is it strained stock or does it contain vegetables? Dave

I grew them as string beans & when they dried on the vine, because I had eaten & frozen my fill, I eat them as shelly beans. Did not know what shelly was in those days, just called them dry beans.

In the legume family, in general dried beans are higher in protein than dried peas. I think soybeans are the highest,followed by lentils, followed by dried beans in general (black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, etc.) and then by dried peas. In the pea category, dried southern peas (blackeyes, pinkeye purplehulls, zipper peas, crowder peas, etc.) are a little higher in protein than dried green peas (English peas, etc.). It goes without saying that any bean or pea harvested and eaten as a snap bean or as a edible podded pea or as a shelly green bean or pea has less protein than those grown to maturity and harvested dry because at the green stage they have not yet fully developed the proteins that will develop before you harvest them as dried peas/beans. I've grown most of the bean varieties offered by SESE but I grow them as snap beans or as shelly beans(particularly lima beans) at the green stage but not as dried beans, and they produce just fine in spring and fall, but most flower and set beans poorly in mid-summer because the heat impedes their pollination. Pretty much any bean variety I ever have grown, excluding runner beans which also have trouble in high heat, will produce well with only minimal irrigation as long as the temperatures don't go too far above about 90 degrees. At 90 degrees, blossom drop often becomes a problem. I don't grow beans or peas to the dried bean or pea stage because both are so inexpensive to buy in bulk at the grocery store that it does not make any logical sense to me to devote a lot of garden space to growing them and then devote a lot of time to shelling them, only to have a relatively small harvest as a result. When you grow beans to the dry stage, you are discarding the dry pods and keeping the dry beans/peas and it is amazing how a big bucket of bean or pea pods gives you relatively few peas/beans (by weight or volume) once shelled compared to all the empty, dried pods you throw on the compost pile. I don't like spending all that time growing and harvesting them only to keep 5% of the plant to eat while composting the rest, but that's just me. I simply like the maximum production from the soil we've spent years improving, and raising beans or peas to the dry stage gives us a smaller harvest overall than harvesting them and eating them as snap peas or snap beans, although the same harvest if eating them as green shellies. Drought tolerance is in the eyes of the beholder to a certain extent because there are many kinds of drought. Beans or peas that grow and produce well in moderate or severe drought might not grow and produce nearly as well once your area advances to extreme or exceptional drought. The beans that have produced best for me in periods of extreme or exceptional drought are Rattlesnake, Worchester Indian Red Lima and Violet's Multicolored Butter Beans. All southern peas produce very well in heat and drought. Dawn

LINDAS BEAN SOUP This recipe is my own concoction. I adjust all the spices and ingredients to my taste, so IÂll give you the basics, and you have to go with it from there. Be sure to go easy with the spices in the beginning because the flavors intensify as the cooking continues. You can always add more, but you canÂt remove what is already there. **-Beans, either dry 16 oz. Bag (must soak overnight or follow directions on package) or canned about 4 cans (drain); (I use pinto or black beans, but any beans will work) -Bacon cut up (about ½ to 1 pound for a large pot) -Onions & Garlic (chopped) (I use a large onion and a whole head of garlic) -Chicken broth (about 3 32 oz. cans or cartons of broth) -Sausage (4 or 5 links) -Tomatoes (both chopped and whole) (fresh or canned) about 2 cans chopped and 4 fresh whole tomatoes -Rotel tomatoes (one or two cans) -Peppers fresh (jalapeno, Serrano, habanero) (I use one each-whole) -Beer (one can) -Cilantro (one bunch; the whole bunch including stems) -Fresh Chives and/or green onions (one bunch) -Oregano (fresh or dried) if using fresh herbs always use 3 times that of dried herbs -Cumin (1/4 cup) -Cayenne Pepper (one tablespoon) -Chili Powder (1/4 cup) -Salt & Pepper (freshly ground) to taste -Green Pepper (optional) -Rice (Optional) I fry up the bacon and add the onions and garlic. Be sure not to overcook the garlic or it will get bitter. If this happens, you might as well start over because burned garlic is really bad. Then I add the sausage and brown it. Again make sure you donÂt overcook the garlic. Then I add the broth, beans, a beer, the tomatoes, Rotel peppers, fresh peppers (I use one of each) and all the spices and then finish with water to cover the beans by about 2". Bring to boil (do not allow it to burn) and then reduce heat to simmer. Depending on whether I use dried beans or fresh beans, the cooking time will vary. With dried beans, it takes about 2 to 3 hours to cook. You can then serve the beans with sour cream, fresh chives, fresh tomatoes, fresh onions, and fresh cilantro. Also if you want, you can add some rice (either cooked or uncooked) directly into the beans towards the end of the cooking period. Or you can just serve the beans over a bed of rice. I use yellow rice, but white rice works just as well. The rice will give you more of a full feeling, if you know what I mean. Linda Texas P. S. Funny store. One day I had a pot of beans on the stove and had to run to the store, so I asked my DH to keep an eye on the beans so they would not burn. I was gone longer than expected, and when I came back, because the beans had reduced a lot of the liquid, DH came to the rescue. During the hour or two I was gone, he managed to keep putting beer into the beans rather than water. He put in a whole six-pack of beer (UGH)!! Anyway, I managed to rescue the beans by adding massive amounts of water and reducing the water. They were "OK", but I highly recommend only one beer and not an entire six-pack. **When using black beans add 2 to 4 smoked ham hocks for great flavor.