On 22 Jan 2004 16:36:31 -0800, (Chris) wrote:

It seems to me that dried beans (kidney, cow, turtle and the like) are
super labor intensive. I mean, waiting for the pod to dry, the
picking the shells and finally reaping the beans. It seems like it
would take an hour for a simple pound of beans.

Is there a simpler way - other than spending the $1.15/lb it costs at
the health food store for organic beans?

And couldn't the space be used for something more productive, anyway?
Does anyone have insight/thoughts on this?

I grew some beans for dried beans (pintos? turtle beans?) once a long
time ago in a very small way. When I got 'em all cleaned and ready for
storage, I noticed there were zillions of teeny holes in the beans --
some kind of worm? Total loss.

I also grew onions one year (from sets) that took a lot of weeding and
water, and also returned little. I'm about to head out to a local
grocery store that has 5lb of onions for $2.50.

I really prefer to grow things that are either unusual or rarely
available in stores (purple okra and Oriental veg), hideously
expensive (multi-colored peppers, many herbs), or clearly superior to
boughten stuff (tomatoes!).

Given the return on one bean seed, dried beans might be worthwhile (it
doesn't take a *lot* of labor to shake them out of the shells),
particularly if you insist on organic and can keep the bean weevils(?)
away. Or if you want to have more exotic varieties than are available
commercially.