I don't know anything about the safety, so can't comment, but others here will :). Personally, I like my beans very well cooked! I usually cook grocery beans for about 8 hours, after soaking them overnight. So I would not worry :). I am intrigued at the idea of growing romanos for shell beans. I grow them, but I eat them all as green beans, with the pods. Thanks for bringing me a new idea!

Caelian!, you did a tremendous job and are to be congratulated on what you harvested and preserved. I am proud of you and hope to be doing the same this time next year or sooner. For those who do not know what Asian pickles are they are also called Indian pickles and can be made from many different ingredients including mango, cucumber, carrots, etc and combinations of vegetables and fruits. They are either preserved in an oil base or brine base. There are numerous combinations of flavors, etc. You can pickle dried chilis the same way as you would regular pickles but they are better in the oil based brine. Once again great job, Linda.

I'm sorry to hear all that Azzalea. I hope things are getting better. We had a beautiful day here. I slept in until 8 (although Gary was up early as usual), then I made brownies (which I decorated with pink and yellow easter eggs (designed in decorator frosting) and jelly beans plus mixed up my corn casserole to take for dinner at my sister in law's house. Then we walked to Easter Services at a small church just a block from home. We enjoyed the church and the services tremendously and plan to go back this coming Sunday. I don't know why we've never stopped in there before, during the 10 months we've lived here. There are two of these little churches near us. This one only one block and the other only two blocks from our home. After that, it was time to take the dogs on a nice long walk (did I mention it was a warm sunny day) and then pack up to go for dinner, which was at 3 pm. Although most of the yards here in town are still under several inches of snow, we did walk by one yard where crocus were blooming up by the front door. What a pretty sign of spring! We stopped at Walmart on the way, wanting to pick up an Easter Lily for Gary's mom, but the few they had left were pretty sad looking so we ended up with a pot of tulips instead. Just one pretty red tulip was opened and there were a dozen buds so they will last her a while, then she can plant them in the yard. We stopped by her house for a few minutes and then went on to his sister's for dinner. Spent a couple of enjoyable hours there, then stopped back at his mom's again to check on the sump pump in the basement. The hose had come unhooked so the pump was working but no water flowing and there was a foot of water standing down there. This is an old house with a primitive basement and it's like that every spring, so nothing new there. Gary was able to wade in and get it going ok. After that, we drove around for a while 'out in the bush' as Gary calls it. Just enjoying seeing the snow and the ice on Lake Superior melt. There's not much growing out there yet, but we saw a few deer and the birch and aspen trees are lovely (even bare) with all that pretty white bark. Then it was home for another walk with the puppies and a couple of hours of tv before bedtime. All in all a lovely day!

I sometimes slowly bake a pile of chillis in the oven on a low heat for a couple of hours. Then just store them like other dried herbs, and crush them into whatever I am cooking when ever I need them. If you blacken them a little it gives them a bonus flavour. I think some mexican cooking requires 'blackened' chillis.