Pretty!

Pretty! I can't imagine shelling all those beans! Did you play games while working, like I Spy or 20 Questions?

No games, but Elery and I solved all the problems of the world before those beans were all shelled, watching cooking shows on PBS and shelling beans, LOL. Mother helped, it was a simple task that she could accomplish and I think she actually kind of enjoyed that, knowing she was doing something "useful".

Thankfully they were not all mature at the same time, so at least we got to shell them at different times!

Annie

I love this kind of soup, so enjoyed seeing all the colors and jars of beans.

I think it’s great that you are able to include your Mom in some things. Too often the elderly are totally set aside.

NIce! It was a good year for beans here, too. It still hasn't frosted. I've never had my beans die off and drop their leaves before it frosted. So I have lots of nice, mature seed for next year and the shell beans are all canned up, some in bbq or Boston baked bean sauce. And I found a black bean that will grow to dry in the pod. In my 3000' garden! Almost makes up for carrots the size of my pinkie and cabbage the size of softballs.

So I can have Three Bean Soup, lol (the purple ones are bush green beans).

A charitable organization in town used to buy beans and assemble and sell as a fund raiser packets or I think 12 beans and distribute with a recipe for soup. Forget the exact recipe but it was something like ham bits or bacon slices, onions sauteed in that beans added, and I forget if chicken broth or just water cooked until soft and thwen a can of chopped tomatoes and juice of half a lempon, salt to taste, Delicious! But don't add the tomatoes or lemon until the beans are cooked, or they won't soften.

Wow, lots of beautiful beans!

Annie, I’ve grown Scarlet Runner beans for many years and they are beautiful, but I have never eaten them as green beans or dried. I‘ve read in many different on-line sources that they’re more of an ornamental and should only be eaten at a very early stage and in small amounts, and are otherwise basically poisonous. What is realiable info on these beans?

KatieC, what are those really pretty beans on the far right of your pic?

Nature is pretty!

Party_music, Scarlet runners are the most widely grown climbing bean in the UK and are almost exclusively used as a green bean. They suit our climate. Any ornamental qualities are a side show. If the home gardener grows no other vegetable they will often grow Runner Beans. They are seldom, if ever, used as a dry bean. We have many named cultivars, so the quality is probably better than a generic unnamed ’ Scarlet Runner’ available in the US. They should not be eaten raw in quantity but we eat them by the ton cooked. If you are interested in them this link takes you to an account of an RHS trial of 48 cultivars. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/plant-trials-and-awards/plant-bulletins/runnerbeans.pdf 

Here are last years runner beans I collected for seed.

And the beans.

I've never grown beans, but I also like them a lot and eat them often. I always have quite a selection of dried beans on hand, usually pinto, red, black, white (navy), garbanzo, lentil, fava, lima, etc. I don't always have split peas, but I like them also.

I tried to grow snow peas in Austin, but it was too hot, and they did not do well. I could probably grow them in California in the winter.

The beans I hate to shell are fava, but I love eating them.

Your selection of beans looks very pretty, and I will have to try making some mixed bean soup in the future - I don't think I've ever had it. I've put two kinds of beans in minestrone, but that's about it!

Party_music, the gold ones are Tiger's Eye. The red and white ones are Tongue of Fire.

Floral_uk, thanks for the info.! That link doesn’t work for me though.

KatieC, Thank you, they’re beautiful and sound like a great bean!

The link appears to have broken. I get this message now, ”Sorry. It's not you. It's us.

We're experiencing an internal server issue.”

Try this link to a different trial, https://apps.rhs.org.uk/planttrials/TrialReports/Bean%20runner%202013.pdf

Or google RHS Runner Bean Trials and you should be able to find it.

That link works, thanks. Those are pretty variations on flower color. I’ve always grown scarlet runner bean and purple hyacinth bean. Nice jewel colors. :)

PM, I've never grown or eaten Scarlet Runner beans before, but I find instructions all over the internet on how to dry and then soak and eat the mature shelled beans, so my mix is apparently safe. I do not know how they taste, though, so when I cook the mix and taste one, I'll know whether I have to go back and pick them all out. (grin) And, of course, Rancho Gordo sells them by the pound, and they were one of the beans listed on the package of soup mix that I liked so much. Rancho Gordo suggests cooking and adding them to salad as they are "meaty" AND beautiful.

https://www.ranchogordo.com/collections/heirloom-beans/products/scarlet-runner-bean

The scarlet runners are so pretty, and huge. The runner is on the left, a Christmas Lima on the right. That's a quarter, so they are both pretty big beans.

KatieC, those Tiger Eye really are pretty. I didn't grow those, but might add them to next year's garden. My "yellow" beans are Mayacoba, which I forgot to list in my original post, and I was surpised they grew so well here. I found that the Painted Pony did well but are terrible to shell, that the cow pea didn't like it here very much and I won't grow it again, and that the pinto beans did get wet and moldy in our weather, I think they like it a lot hotter and dryer than it was here this year. Pintos are one of Elery's favorites, but they are so readily available here that I can just buy them.

Elery made me "bean towers" out of two cattle panels hinged together at the top like a teepee, and we can just pull them up and "fold" them for flat storage. So, next year I'll be able to plant more types of pole beans and see what likes Michigan's shorter growing season.

Thanks, LindaC, that's pretty similar to my "basic" bean soup with bacon, but I don't normally add tomatoes. I usually add some carrot for color, but the tomato would take care of that, I think. I do have a lot of canned tomatoes, so I'm going to have to try that.

Islay, nature IS beautiful, isn't it. More beautiful than anything I can make up, certainly.

Lars, I like all kinds of beans and usually add at least 3 or 4 kinds to chili or baked beans. Since you have all those kinds of beans, just mix 'em up, I think they are all good.

I especially liked the addition of barley to that commercial soup mix, something I wouldn't have thought of, and I might try some with wheat berries instead, I keep them on hand for grinding anyway. The eight vegetables included onion, leeks (green and white), carrot, celery, corn, green beans, green and red bell peppers.

I think I'll be doing a lot of experimenting with beans this year!

Annie

I love mayacoba beans. :) Not surprised about the pintos, which are a staple in the SW.

So for soup, I think barley is the beast, but if you're going with wheat, bulgar is better than wheatberries. It takes more to crack them. Making them into bulgar, shouldn't be a big deal.

plllog, I like Mayacoba lot too. I also liked a nice purple one called Kebarika, but they didn't do as well as some others, and they matured just a handful at a time, so it took weeks to grow, pick and shell them.

I like barley too, but I have a lot of wheat berries, so this might be a good use for them.

Lars, I tried to send you a message, but apparently have an old email.

Annie

Isn’t it interesting that here, where runner beans are very widely and easily grown, we don’t eat the dried beans? All the many named cultivars developed here are used green and bred to be long, tender and preferably stringless. We’re obviously wasting a lot of beans. At the end of the season the mature beans, if not being saved for seed, usually end up on the compost heap.

Btw runners are perennial. If you have mild winters they will come back from tubers the following year.

Annie1992, can you tell us how you use your soup mix? What is your recipe, in broad terms?

I'm trying to learn to be brief, but then I lose my point. ;) I was suggesting you parboil and crack the wheatberries because they're better in soup that way. Just soak, toast and run a rolling pin over them. IME, plain wheat takes a long time to soften in soup. YMMV.

Floral, I use beans a lot, but usually not a mixture. I make baked beans, refried beans, hummus, various bean dips, bean soup, sometimes just a "mess of beans", and sometimes I make them specifically for salad. The mixed beans I simmer with all those vegetables I mentioned above, or whatever is ready in the garden, or whatever I have in the crisper drawer, whatever suits me. I add a smoked turkey leg, a ham bone, some bacon or maybe none of those, depending on what I have. Sometimes I use chicken broth for the liquid but usually it's just water. It's very flexible, LOL. I always add a bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes it gets fresh thyme or some garlic if I think of it, it's all good. I like to throw in a handful of barley or some brown rice, sometimes I have leftover rice and that goes in at the end because it's already cooked. I do find that dried beans have to cook for a couple of hours, at least, to reach a texture I like. I don't want them firm, I want them "creamy".

And, Elery, being from Tennessee, always wants cornbread, which i bake in a cast iron skillet.

Thanks, Plllog, I thought you meant crack them when they were dry, not soaked, so that makes it more clear.

When you say you simmer the beans, does that mean after they've been soaked? The soaking rather puts me off dried beans since I have to plan ahead and don’t necessarily still feel like eating beans the next day. And long simmering is expensive on fuel. I do cook beans but I tend to use canned. I wish I liked them more. I also wish DH would eat soups. He‘ll eat them once in a while on sufferance but he just doesn't like liquid meals.

What a harvest!. Impressive. I ended up with a few varieties for next years planting only.

New to me recipe i've been making this Fall. bean confit. Lots of similar recipes doing a google search. Easily a casserole dish for a family. Next i'll use some leeks and some other veg. I've been using a 1/4 pint of master stock, drizzle of olive oil, then baking. I've been baking individual servings and adding a protein to the table like braised/roasted chicken thighs.

Black beans i've been baking this way for a while with a Oaxacan mole.

I've managed to freeze mixed grains and mixed cooked beans in pints and half pints to add to winter soups. (i always make extra on purpose).

The top two white beans are pictured before going on a sheet pan into the oven.

Floral, unless the beans have been neglected for years, you don't need to soak them (and if they're that dry, they my never rehydrate). Some people think soaking helps curb gas, but it's usually a reaction to fiber, and people whose diets aren't fiber deficient tend not to get the gas. Places with beans as a staple food rarely soak them. The main reason to soak not overly dried beans is to speed up the cook. You can jump start a soak by covering with water, cover, bring to a boil, then turn off and let them set 2-3 hours. Then cook as usual. Alternatetively, same covered pot with water, in the oven 175-200C for 40-60 minutes. Oven time depends on just how dry the beans were. You want tender, but not full on creamy, so they can cook more in the dish you're making. If you over do it, they'll fall apart.

What a beautiful bunch of beans! What part did you dehydrate?

Interesting. I’ve just looked at the few packets in my pantry and all say to soak overnight.

After having a few bad experiences, I always soak mine for at least a few hours first.

Wowzers - that's a lot of beans! Good work 😃

And perhaps people are confusing scarlet runners with hyacinth beans - I believe those are the ones that are not strictly edible...?

P.S. I like to soak beans ahead and don't find it a burden at all. I just soak them in the pot I'll be cooking them in, and if it's going to be awhile before I cook them, I just put the pot in the fridge. I like that pre-soaking shortens the cooking time.

Runner beans shouldn’t be eaten raw, although I do nibble the occasional one while picking. You might like this article https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/28/alys-fowler-runner-beans