Drying Picked Beans (Scarlet Runners)

Question

My wife just harvested our first batch of beans and is wanting to dry them, so that we may use them for cooking goodness. How can we dry the beans once they have been picked?

Most of what I've found online talk about waiting and letting them dry on the vine. Good to know for the future, but we have a bag full of picked beans to deal with now.

I found one site that talked about putting them in the oven at 120F for and hour, turning it up to 150F until they are "almost dry" and then turning it down to 130F... until they are dry, I'm guessing (the instructions didn't tell me what the end condition was). Does this jive with what other are familiar with?

Thank you for any advice!

Answer 1

Some of the situation depends on how dry the climate you live in is (and how dry your house is). The temps suggested sound OK, if you are in a hurry. If you don't live in a really humid climate, you could probably just shell the beans, and then dry them in a single layer on a sheet pan over a few days, giving them a stir, to flip the beans over, and redistribute the moist sides vs. drier sides. How long it would take depends a lot on how warm and how humid your air is. You could also try using a dehydrator, which uses a fan to speed the process up.