2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[baymule]

I usually pick peas and freeze them as fresh. I also have to pick peas and beans before fully dried. It’s a race against humidity.

 

[flowerbug]

today i'm hoping to finish planting the one garden i started planting peas and beans. i have plenty of Purple Dove seeds to use up and this will be a good spot to put them, the soil in there is pretty compacted and can use the debris that will be leftover when the crops are finished. if we get a real cold snap next week i won't mind if these get taken out since i do have plenty more where they came from.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Shellies are what I grew up with. They are what almost all the local cowpeas and limas are picked as because of our high humidity. If I want dry beans I have to pick them when the pod is just starting to turn yellow or they simultaneously sprout and mold in the shell. I’ve had roots poking out of lima pods still on the plant after a heavy rain before. Personally I think cowpeas/black eyed peas aren’t nearly as good dried.

That's true. When I think of shellies I just think of beans that are too old for snap beans. That's what I always heard called shellies. But Limas, green peas, and black-eyed peas are much better in the shelly stage. I never thought of them as shellies.

 

[flowerbug]

We've been having a little rain down this way. A few of my beans have just barely started maturing, a few days later would have been better. When this happens I pick the individual pods and move them into the dry so the seeds don't sprout in the pod. I don't wait for the pods to start to dry, I try to get them just as they start to turn color and get rubbery. I've lost too many sprouting in the pod to be casual about this. My goal is to get viable beans that will sprout. Sometimes the color is not fully mature.

Cock 'n Bull is one of those this year. Some of these will darken in color and a few will shrink as they dry but I think they are all viable. That one on top is not moldy and that is not a membrane. Occasionally one bean in a pod will look kind of weird like that even when they are fully mature. I don't know if it is a reverse or something else is going on.

Russ, this is from the Will Bonsall #32's. It looks like it may be stabilized this year but I'll wait until the harvest is over to be more sure.

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For comparison this is the bean planted. Some interesting markings on it.

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i can't always tell from pictures what is really going on with a bean here in TEG, but i can say from experience that some beans will come out of the shell with markings if they are picked before the skin on the bean has hardened more. my most notable version of this was a bean called Montezuma Red (from @Bluejay77's network pages). when shelled early it looked lovely and was very very productive bean, but as soon as those beans dried they had markings on them. left to dry in the shell all the way they were good, but in my climate/conditions/space considerations that's not always easy or possible.

 

[Zeedman]

Personally I think cowpeas/black eyed peas aren’t nearly as good dried.

While I grow quite a few cowpeas here, I've only ever used them dry. As much as I love shellies, why??? I guess because I generally grow small quantities (only a 15-20' row) and I've been too focused on seed saving. This year I am planning some double rows, so I will make it a point to try some cowpeas in the shelly stage. I'm really curious to try boiling them in the pod too.

 

[Zeedman]

But Limas, green peas, and black-eyed peas are much better in the shelly stage. I never thought of them as shellies.

And edamame soybeans too! I suspect those take the place of green Southern peas in my diet.

 

[baymule]

@Zeedman my grandmother always picked very young black eyed pea pods that hadn’t started to swell with seeds yet. She always put snaps in her peas, along with chunks of ham or bacon.

 

[baymule]

@flowerbug do you use Purple Dove as dry beans, shellies or green beans?

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug do you use Purple Dove as dry beans, shellies or green beans?

all three! they are not a thick canning bean, but they are delicious steamed for about 8 minutes, i also like eating them right off the plant. as shellies and cooked from dried beans they are a mild pinto flavor.

 

[flowerbug]

i have three FPJ babies!!!!! (i needed to use up some exclamation marks sorry)... so far.

finished up planting that garden (put in about 140 Purple Dove) and watered things in well and made sure the sprouts for the beans and peas got some water too.

hot out there, wasn't out there that long but it was long enough. AC is turning me into a wimp...