PhoenixWench wrote:
....
Great info - especially as I plan to do beans next year for the first
time in years ;-)

instead of trying to find each of those
beans in seed packets i went out and bought
a bag of mixed soup beans. sorted them by
color/size and planted each in their own
patch.

the soybeans were purchased separately (as
i wanted a guaranteed organic bean for making
soymilk). and before going through all the
work of growing, picking and shelling i did
make sure they worked and tasted right.
soybeans i grew the previous year were field
beans and didn't taste quite right (probably
grown for oil or feed and certainly glyphosate
diddled genetics).

the more reading i do on various things i
find out how many varieties of beans there are.


BTW - I ran across an article that startled and slightly alarmed me, as
it was news to me - while eating peas right out of the pod in the garden
is OK, beans - notably soy and kidney beans are toxic raw!

AWTTW - http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2385/

i've eaten soy beans out of the pods raw
without ill effect, but when i get back on-line
again i'll see what the link is talking about.
i know a lot of people who eat them green as
edamame (boiled a little).

i would not ever eat a light or dark red
kidney without cooking it at high temperature.
slow cooking kidneys can be trouble if the
crock doesn't get hot enough (it can actually
make the toxins worse).

hm, only other "bean" i know about being
troublesome is the hyacynth beans, but we
don't grow those for food (some people do
and they process them before eating to get
rid of the toxins).


I'm sure the more experienced gardeners here knew that, so this is meant
for the newbies and less experienced - like me ;-)
Happy New Year!!!

thanks! almost here already... eek!


songbird