Black beans are in!

I tried growing black beans for the first time this year. As with most beans they were pretty low maintenance. Perhaps even less than green or wax beans because you only have to harvest once.

For this first year I planted just 8' of twin rows. Unfortunately with a smallish garden I can't afford to dedicate a lot of room to an experiment. Thankfully in this case the experiement went quite well.

I picked about 2 gallons worth of in shell beans last week. With some help from my wife and three year old, we got them all shelled and they've been drying for several days now. Shelling dried beans is not a fun activity, in case you were wondering. I've estimated there should be about 4 cups worth of beans when all is said and done.

Now I just need to get an authentic beans & rice recipe...

If I decide they are worth doing again next year, I might break from the twin row planting and pack in 3 or more rows together to maximize the space. Since you don't have to get in to pick them more than once (I just waited for the plants to begin dying off), there is no need to allow for easy picking. The second half of this year's picking I yanked the plants clean out of the ground so I could strip the beans in a standing posture (anything to save my back a little). Seemed to work pretty well and gets me one step closer to a cleaned up garden for the winter.