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Post by raymondo on Jan 30, 2016 14:57:59 GMT -5
flowerweaver, green stink bugs are my worst bean pest. I use a potassium based soap spray (Natrasoap by Yates here in Australia) when they get too bad. It stops them in their tracks.
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Post by raymondo on Jan 30, 2016 22:05:51 GMT -5
I've been cleaning out the pantry and eating all my old beans. It's given me the opportunity to test which beans remain good eating when they get to 5 years old. I cooked them all the same way: boiled for an hour or so with a bay leaf, a couple of sprigs of winter savory and some fat, either goose or pork, then baked with bacon or chorizo, tomato and chilli. Most have been dry and mealy, quite an unpleasant mouth feel. One was so awful I threw it out. Takes a lot for me to waste food! Only one so far has been good eating: Mojave. This was the name attached to it when I got it but I can find nothing on this bean. It looks identical to Molasses Face so perhaps this is an alternative name. The others are all good when eaten in their first year so I'll have to make sure I do just that in future.
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D&Y
gopher
Getting back into gardening.
Posts: 4 
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Post by D&Y on Jan 31, 2016 22:12:42 GMT -5
On another forum I was given a recommendation to grind the old beans into flour and use them that way. I haven't tried that yet, so I don't know if this is a good idea.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 31, 2016 23:44:15 GMT -5
On another forum I was given a recommendation to grind the old beans into flour and use them that way. I haven't tried that yet, so I don't know if this is a good idea. Beans contain poisons which are deactivated by cooking. The few times that people have fed me breads made with bean flour, the bread tasted poisonous to me. I think that the bread didn't get hot enough to deactivate the poisons. I have sometimes been fed soups thickened with bean flour. Those got hot enough that they didn't taste poisonous to me. |
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Post by paquebot on Feb 1, 2016 0:02:48 GMT -5
Old beans can be ground to make Mexican-style refried beans, Doesn't have to be ground to flour. Don't do what I did and try an electric meat grinder. Broke the drive gear off the auger. Anyone know anyone with a burned out Maverick MM6386 which might have a burned out motor? Even the company that made it doesn't have the replacement part.
Martin
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Post by steev on Feb 1, 2016 2:47:15 GMT -5
Refrieds are made from previously-cooked beans. No Mexican ever ground dry beans to make refrieds. They're called refried because they've already been cooked once. Heat some lard in a pan, throw in some of yesterday's beans, smash 'em up to incorporate the lard; that's refried beans, thrifty, tasty, nutritious.
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Post by paquebot on Feb 1, 2016 14:00:08 GMT -5
Grinding can reduce them to the same consistency as Old El Paso refried beans. Works especially well if there's a mix where some are harder than others and will not soften enough by boiling. Have some mixes with snap means which would never soften with a week or boiling. The grinder or mill makes them all even. Got the idea from another long-time member here and it worked until my grinder broke. If there's any doubt, google "instant refried beans". In addition to recipes on how to make it using a coffee grinder or food mill, one can buy it in stores already pre-mixed. Good recipe at: www.food.com/recipe/instant-refried-beans-mix-439991 Martin |
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Post by jondear on Jun 1, 2016 20:19:37 GMT -5
All ~360 row feet of bean popped up in the last two days. Mostly Marfax and Rockwell with a short row of Calypso.
Times were tough during seed ordering time, so I had to go with what I had. Maybe next year I can try some of the suggestions you folks mentioned.
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Post by jondear on Aug 23, 2016 21:17:17 GMT -5
Rockwell beans.  Marfax beans  Calypso isn't ready yet. Seed was saved from adjacent rows to increase the chances of finding some outcrosses. Purity is for snobs... Lol |
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 25, 2016 15:06:01 GMT -5
Jon, Nice beans. When I make refried beans dried: First I cook the beans. Then I mash them (sans fat) and put them in the dehydrator. When I rehydrate them, I always add a bit o'bacon fat. Because Steev said I would end up in purgatory if I didn't....
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Post by steev on Aug 25, 2016 15:45:39 GMT -5
No, I didn't, but it will seem so.
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Post by jondear on Aug 25, 2016 18:18:51 GMT -5
Pork fat makes everything better. 🐷
I use salt pork more often than bacon in my baked beans.
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Post by steev on Aug 25, 2016 20:29:27 GMT -5
Lard is less cholesterol-ish than butter and easier to produce and store. There are reasons why pork is the most popular meat world-wide. Salt pork is one of the products I expect to produce on the farm; commercial salt pork being mostly just salt fat, these days. While I recognize the dangers of excess sodium, on my farm enough salt to stay hydrated is important; won't matter what my heart condition is, if I collapse of heat-stroke.
Not baking beans much (yet), flavorful bacon grease is more useful to my current cooking habits (greens and veggies; I don't eat fried bacon {one slice in the past 60 years, really!}, so I'm dependent on the by-product of others' use of it; there are stories relating to my dis-inclination that I must have posted). Bacon, head cheese, scrapple, sausage, and prosciutto are other things I hope to produce from a dried-cull-fruit-finished hog yearly.
In the fullness of time, when I'm more on the farm, I expect baked beans to be more in my diet. baked and then canned, to marry and develop umami, fit to put in a sandwich (see? I know Ozzie tucker ain't all "shrimp on the barbie").
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Post by shoshannah on Aug 31, 2016 13:35:25 GMT -5
Most of the beans taste so much alike I use what I have or pick a small amount of several kinds. I find more difference from the flavorings and meat used.
I soak my beans overnight in salted water. This keeps the beans from tasting so bland. I use mostly pork. Could be from garlic crusted pork roast, sausage,
meaty smoked pork necks or a nice ham shank, leftover ham bone, ham bits. Ham hocks have so little meat on them I stopped using them. I like the
combination of bits of mixed meats. I may add some bacon or some chopped up cooked chicken. Cooking the beans with smoked bone in meats adds the
most flavor and you get the benefit of bone broth. Add favorite veggies like celery, onion, garlic, carrot, tomatoes. I like the beans more brothy so I will
add more broth if it gets too thick. Somehow it tastes better baked in the oven that on the stove top or slow cooker but they still taste pretty good.
Maybe more caramelizing in the oven. Sometimes like Hoppin' John I may serve over a scoop of rice. For cassoulet I stick to a bean like Great Northern.
For a more traditional baked beans I used sorghum instead of molasses for less bitterness.
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