Blackeye peas and shell beans ?

1shotwade · #1 08/26/14, 05:37 PM

This is kind of dumb but I have to ask. So can you dry your beans too much to the point the will not reabsorb the moisture when cooking? The reason I ask is I'm raising them for the first time. They are always so cheap in the store it didn't make sense to raise them but now I'm to the point I really don't trust what comes from the store.
So anyway the blackeyes are turning on the plant and I'm out there every couple days getting them before they open. I'm then had shelling them and I noticed they are 3 times the size you buy at the store but I'm letting them dry and now they are only 1/2 to 1/3 the size of store bought.Am I letting them dry too much?I thought the store was just selling 2nds when mine were so much larger but now I'm wondering if I have found a way to mess this up!
Appriciate the help folks!

Wade

COWS · #2 08/26/14, 07:49 PM

Short answer is that the dried one have to be soaked longer to cook properly. We pick green ones after they are ripe but not dry, shell them, cook to eat or freeze them. They can be canned. The dry ones can be dried throughly, shelled, heated in oven to kill bug eggs, and stored in glass jars, cooked in winter after soaking.

COWS

Rustaholic · #3 08/26/14, 08:22 PM

I hope they dry that well for me next year.
I have a large packet of cow peas that I am going to plant just to grow more seed. They are open pollinated and organic. I will plant more each year until I get enough for my acre that should be ready about the same time.
I am aiming for that three sisters garden acre.

1shotwade · #4 08/27/14, 12:06 PM

OK, so I had to look up "three sisters". New to me but looks like it'll work.An acre is a bunch of garden!
As for drying, I have been picking as soon as the hull starts to turn color and that keeps me out there every other day. I'm just trying to keep up with them before they open and go to the ground.Since I started I have shelled everything by hand. In the past we would pull the plants just before frost and leave the beans in the hull in a 5 gal bucked behind the wood stove.They dried just fine there but since I am getting these with more moisture at picking I've been thinking on the best way to do them and just remembered I have an old minnow bucket made out of a steel mesh on a 5 gal bucket frame.I think that will take the place of hand shelling since it will allow so much air circulation.

Wade

Allen W · #5 08/27/14, 01:00 PM

I think your picking them too early, let them go longer the pod should be dry when you pick them.

1shotwade · #6 08/27/14, 01:53 PM

Normally I would agree with that but , I'm picking them every other day and there are pods that go from green to dry and breaking open in that time period. I agree this is pretty unusual and I considered That I was missing some so have made a special effort to get them all that were turning and sure 'nuff the next picking was the same.I don't know how else I can get them before they open and end up on the ground.

Wade

Allen W · #7 08/27/14, 09:39 PM

I'm stumped.

Normally by the time the pod dries the seed should be matured and dried or close to dry. You have some thing going on for the peas to be going from green to splitting in a couple of days

1shotwade · #8 08/28/14, 06:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allen W

I'm stumped.

Normally by the time the pod dries the seed should be matured and dried or close to dry. You have some thing going on for the peas to be going from green to splitting in a couple of days

Maybe it's the weird weather or the only other thing I can think of is that i just bought store beans and planter them 'cause i didn't have access to any locally. I picked day before yesterday and about noon yesterday I went out and have all kinds of bean that went from green to yellow,almost brown. So that would be about 20 hours.
Beats me! At least I've got blackeye peas to eat this year!

Wade

suitcase_sally · #9 08/28/14, 11:48 AM

Pour your beans out on a tray and let them dry for a couple of weeks at least. Make sure that they are not deep on the tray. Stir every few days. You have to have them totally dry before storing so they don't mold.

When they are dried properly, they should be about the same size as the store bought ones.

I buy my beans straight from the elevator. I grow the kinds that I can't buy locally.

Rustaholic · #10 08/28/14, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1shotwade

OK, so I had to look up "three sisters". New to me but looks like it'll work.An acre is a bunch of garden!
As for drying, I have been picking as soon as the hull starts to turn color and that keeps me out there every other day. I'm just trying to keep up with them before they open and go to the ground.Since I started I have shelled everything by hand. In the past we would pull the plants just before frost and leave the beans in the hull in a 5 gal bucked behind the wood stove.They dried just fine there but since I am getting these with more moisture at picking I've been thinking on the best way to do them and just remembered I have an old minnow bucket made out of a steel mesh on a 5 gal bucket frame.I think that will take the place of hand shelling since it will allow so much air circulation.
Wade

It will be an acre because the corn and cow peas will be for pigs and chickens. I have a lot of corn shellers and feed grinders and old engines to run them. Squash for us and a few of the pumpkins but most of the pumpkins will go to pigs and chickens.
I do not trust most store bought meat or eggs.
The next acre and a half will go to Hay for a couple milk goats.
Yes I will still have to buy some winter hay but I have five acres here and I want to grow our food and our meat is part of that.
In the spring I am going to plant those cow peas in some of our growing beds and I will plant a few hills of corn there at the same time and watch to see how they grow together. I will need the corn high enough for the cow peas to hang on it.
I will be picking the cow peas right into a bucket and hand shelling them. I love that the peas will be providing the nitrogen that the corn wants. I am looking forward thinking the squash and pumpkins will make it hard to get at the ripening cow peas. Time will tell. If it didn't work out well those Native Americans wouldn't have been doing the three sisters garden so long. I am only 1/8 Native American but I still am hoping it works well for me.

homesteadforty · #11 08/29/14, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1shotwade

...So can you dry your beans too much to the point the will not reabsorb the moisture when cooking?...

Not unless you are using a heat source (like an oven or over/near a fire) or if you leave them far to long in direct sun.

1shotwade · #12 08/31/14, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustaholic

It will be an acre because the corn and cow peas will be for pigs and chickens. I have a lot of corn shellers and feed grinders and old engines to run them. Squash for us and a few of the pumpkins but most of the pumpkins will go to pigs and chickens.
I do not trust most store bought meat or eggs.
The next acre and a half will go to Hay for a couple milk goats.
Yes I will still have to buy some winter hay but I have five acres here and I want to grow our food and our meat is part of that.
In the spring I am going to plant those cow peas in some of our growing beds and I will plant a few hills of corn there at the same time and watch to see how they grow together. I will need the corn high enough for the cow peas to hang on it.
I will be picking the cow peas right into a bucket and hand shelling them. I love that the peas will be providing the nitrogen that the corn wants. I am looking forward thinking the squash and pumpkins will make it hard to get at the ripening cow peas. Time will tell. If it didn't work out well those Native Americans wouldn't have been doing the three sisters garden so long. I am only 1/8 Native American but I still am hoping it works well for me.

I put in an acre of red cowpeas last year for a wildlife plot. I was shocked to see that the field has gone totally fallow with local vegetation and not one cowpea. I assumed they would be thick in that field for a few years! Shows how wrong I can be!

Wade

Rustaholic · #13 09/01/14, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1shotwade

I put in an acre of red cowpeas last year for a wildlife plot. I was shocked to see that the field has gone totally fallow with local vegetation and not one cowpea. I assumed they would be thick in that field for a few years! Shows how wrong I can be!

Wade

Did the cow peas grow well last year?
What was the field before you planted the cow peas?

1shotwade · #14 09/01/14, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustaholic

Did the cow peas grow well last year?
What was the field before you planted the cow peas?

The field was fallow for 3 years. I planted cowpeas and millet in strips of 4 rows each but none of the millet was good seed so I ended up with 4 rows of cowpeas and 4 rows of fallow ground. The cowpeas did great so I thought I'd have a fiels full of volunteer but it's all fallow for this year.

Wade

Allen W · #15 09/01/14, 03:15 PM

I've seldom seen cow peas volunteer the next year. It's hard to carry over a sack of seed until the next year with out bugs getting in it.