Deliver Us the Beans: How to Grow, Harvest, and Dry These Humble Garden Gems

Shelling beans is a marvelous meditative activity. (Jiri Hera/Shutterstock)

“Beans for breakfast, beans for dinner

Beans for supper, Lord deliver ...”

There’s a passel of beans in Pat Brady’s “Come and Get It,” the cowboy dinner song popularized by the Sons of the Pioneers. That’s appropriate, because there are many, many beans to grow and use in the home garden and kitchen, and not so long ago—witness the snippet of Western music history above—dry beans were a crucial part of American life—especially on the frontier.

Each year, I grow four heritage types of dry beans. I harvest, cure, and store them in jars in the pantry and cook them all winter. The outcome months later includes white (navy) bean soup, red beans and rice, cowboy (rancho) beans, and onward to more elaborate productions such as cassoulet, the French provincial casserole that may be the world’s richest dish.

The reasons are manifold but simple. As pulses, beans are among what nutritionists believe to be miracle health and longevity foods. They are easy to grow, reliably productive, and simple to harvest, dry, and store.

If you can’t grow beans, stop gardening and take up crochet.

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But you can, friends. Here are the keys.

Dried beans from the author's 2023 harvest. (Eric Lucas)

Steps for Success

Plant in medium garden soil: You see this phrase a lot in garden instructions, and beans are the one crop for which the advice is the most valid. Light dirt—bean plants don’t like soggy feet. Some fertilizer/compost, but not too much—you want beans, not lush leaves. Sandy soil is fine. Clay, not so much.

Plant mid-spring: Mid-April through mid-May is best in most places; earlier in southerly hot-summer climates; later in the far north.

Water thoroughly, but not as often as other veggies: Beans (especially dry) are well adapted to arid climates and most varieties retain the desert heritage that made them so important to indigenous peoples. Versions bred in Europe, such as flageolets, may be slightly less drought tolerant, in theory, but I’ve had good results even if I treat these less than optimally. Beans do OK watered every other week, assuming ordinary weather. Flood irrigation is desirable, if possible; wet bean leaves can develop rust. If you water by sprinkling, be sure to let the plants dry before you work with them or weed the beds.

Reach for the sky: Dry beans, like all beans, come in bush and pole types. Provide the latter with a trellis and you can double your production in half the space, promote drying in the fall, and make harvest easier. Some heirloom types only grow as long vines. Engineering may be needed; I have some varieties that reach past 15 feet, so I hang fence fabric on tall frames and have it grow on them.

Let them grow as long as you can: If you can, let the whole plant dry in the ground before harvest. Cool climate gardeners will need to keep an eye on the forecast in fall: The one real threat to your crop is damp weather that promotes mildew.

By using vertical space, pole beans can produce twice as much as bush beans in the same area. (nnattalli/Shutterstock)

Harvest and Storage

Dry them in the pod. If damp weather seems certain, cut the plants at the base, pile them in a big box or on a spare bed, and dry them indoors. If the weather cooperates, pick the dry pods off the plants, pile them in a box, and store in a dry, warm room—my beans live with my dried corn cobs in our furnace room.

Be sure to keep checking for residual dampness and mildew. If you find it, discard that pod or plant.

Shelling beans is a marvelous meditative activity. I dial up a one-hour piece of meditative music, grab a mixing bowl for the beans and a bucket for discarded pods, lay a fire in the fireplace, and have at it on autumn afternoons. Split open the dry pods with your fingers over the bowl. Stop frequently to admire the glistening deep color of the beans, which is truly amazing (and not so apparent in store-bought beans, but don’t ask me why).

This task is tedious but not difficult. Like much of life.

Store them in glass jars. We use large old peanut butter jars or pickle jars. Please don’t use plastic!

Let beans dry in the pod before harvesting. (Digihelion/Shutterstock)

Choosing Your Beans

Beans for drying come in literally dozens of varieties. I focus on three main types that correspond to famous American foods.

Red Beans

Often called kidney beans, these are the foundation of the much-loved Louisiana red beans and rice, and the rancho beans of the Western trail cattle drive. The latter are often found in restaurants serving Mexican food, too, mixed with pinto beans.

Best varieties: red Mexican, Hidatsa red Indian. I grow a fabulously robust thousand-year-old variety from Taos Pueblo, given to me years ago by a Taoseño singer, chanter, and farmer.

White Beans

Flageolets and cannellini are often called for in cassoulet, but that is a dish that’s lightyears more complicated and time-consuming than simple white bean soup.

Best varieties: flageolet vert, navy pea, cannellini, limas, and butterbeans (pole).

Black Beans

Black bean soup had 15 minutes of fame in the ’90s but is just as wonderful and hearty now, despite its fall from fashion.

Best varieties: black turtle, Trail of tears (pole), Tolosa (pole).

Green Beans

There is one last variety of dry bean most people overlook: green bean leftovers. No matter how diligent you are picking green beans, you‘ll be poking around in September and discover a few old pods you missed. Pick ’em and bring them inside like the types above, and set aside a jar for random beans that will become “variety bean soup.” It'll be good, I promise. The same is true for peas, by the way.

Oh, and what’s the last line of the verse in the cowboy beans song?

“Lord, deliver us from beans!”

But that was the lament of ranch hands who often ate beans two or three times a day. Modern Americans do not face that fate, so let’s agree on a revision:

“Lord deliver us the beans!”

Easily done in the home garden.

Owl Feather Farm White Bean Soup

One famous version of this is Senate bean soup, which has supposedly been served in the U.S. Senate cafeteria every day for more than a century—except once during World War II when rationing caused a shipment to arrive late.

The Senate recipe calls for navy beans, but I use the smaller flageolet French bean, a type of haricot vert. The small, shiny white beans have a beautiful viridescent tinge and produce a splendidly creamy soup with very few ingredients.

Serves 4

• 2 cups flageolet or haricot vert beans (cannellini, corona, or navy beans will also do)
• 3 to 4 cups hot water, depending on desired consistency
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Small ham hock (Senate version), or 6 well-done bacon strips (my version), or 2 links lamb sausage (French-style)

Put the beans and water in a heavy soup tureen (I prefer enamel, but any cast-iron or heavy steel pot will do) and bring to a boil. Add the salt and ham hock, if using. Turn down the heat and simmer 3 to 4 hours, adding more water as needed. If you’re using bacon or sausage, cook these separately, cut them into small pieces, and add them to the soup in the final half-hour of cooking.

Other amendments can include 1/4 cup cream or coconut milk, 1 tablespoon lime juice, a couple of pan-toasted hot chiles, and even a small touch of honey.

Serve with good French bread and a light salad.