Soup Beans

   / Soup Beans #11  
Navy beans, generous bits of smoked ham, and fried cornbread.... my o my... My wife makes a pot of beans that will make any grown man cry for seconds.
 
   / Soup Beans #12  
The picture of the beans looks like the Cranberry Beans we buy, but that shows $9.75 a pound???? I paid $1.69 a pound at a Denton, TX, Kroger's a couple of days ago.

That's for seed, not for food.
 
   / Soup Beans #13  
Navy beans, Great Northern beans; my Dad called them "dishwater beans" and he wouldn't eat them at all. I do like a bowl of bean soup now and then.
 
   / Soup Beans #14  
I grow Great Northern white beans. They are pure white and are a very nice bean for soups. My DIL makes ham and bean soup using them and it's very good, and they work nice for vegetable soup, too. I let them dry as much as possible on the vine, then shell with a pea sheller on a chordless drill and run them through the dehydrator lightly (one damp bean will ruin a whole lot). I use old plastic containers like party mix comes in for short term storage. I throw them in the freezer dry for long term. Culturally, I grow them in rows in plastic with drip irrigation tape underneath, an inch to inch and a half between plants. A little late season trellising will help keep low hanging pods from getting wet and spoiling the beans in them. They sprout quickly with a little moisture.
 
   / Soup Beans #15  
Baked beans on Saturday night is an old New England tradition which we enjoyed every weekend. My mother would put yelloweye beans, salt pork and molasses in the bean pot in the morning, then they would bake all day in the oven. In the afternoon she would bake biscuits, then cook up hotdogs to make the meal complete.
:licking:

Now I occasionally do them up in the crock pot, and at least once every summer I cook up a batch of beanhole beans in my 10 quart dutch oven.
 
   / Soup Beans #16  
Navy beans, Great Northern beans; my Dad called them "dishwater beans" and he wouldn't eat them at all. I do like a bowl of bean soup now and then.

As near as I can tell, the only difference between navy beans and great northern beans is that the navy beans are slightly smaller. Your dad missed out. A pot of navy beans and onions with a smoked ham shank makes a great meal. It's also a great way to use up a ham bone after you have cut most of the meat off. The bone broth after a couple days in the pot makes a great flavor.
 
   / Soup Beans #17  
I grow Great Northern white beans. They are pure white and are a very nice bean for soups. My DIL makes ham and bean soup using them and it's very good, and they work nice for vegetable soup, too. I let them dry as much as possible on the vine, then shell with a pea sheller on a chordless drill and run them through the dehydrator lightly (one damp bean will ruin a whole lot). I use old plastic containers like party mix comes in for short term storage. I throw them in the freezer dry for long term. Culturally, I grow them in rows in plastic with drip irrigation tape underneath, an inch to inch and a half between plants. A little late season trellising will help keep low hanging pods from getting wet and spoiling the beans in them. They sprout quickly with a little moisture.
Do you plant the seeds before you lay the plastic or how do you do it? I plant about 2 1/2 lbs of beans every year, (1 yellow eye, 1/2 each Vermont cranberry, Black turtle soup, and red kidney) but the weeds always seem to get away from me.
 
   / Soup Beans #18  
Do you plant the seeds before you lay the plastic or how do you do it? I plant about 2 1/2 lbs of beans every year, (1 yellow eye, 1/2 each Vermont cranberry, Black turtle soup, and red kidney) but the weeds always seem to get away from me.

I lay all my plastic at once so I can free up the tractor for other things. I cut slots about 2 feet long and skip a foot to seed. I soak the beans for a few hours before I plant and plant by hand. I've gotten better stands since I started that. I still have to weed the seed slot, but it's a lot less area to take care of.
 

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   / Soup Beans #19  
I lay all my plastic at once so I can free up the tractor for other things. I cut slots about 2 feet long and skip a foot to seed. I soak the beans for a few hours before I plant and plant by hand. I've gotten better stands since I started that. I still have to weed the seed slot, but it's a lot less area to take care of.

Thank you. I'll have to try that.
 
 
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