Etna beans at four different stages of maturity
This is a follow up to the post that I created the other day, asking what the difference between shell and dry beans are. I wanted to show a picture of some Etna beans (which I really like, by the way) at different stages of maturity. If you look at the bean on the far right, you will see that the green beans are not fully mature, though the beans in the pod have gotten large enough to fill the pod. But these beans taste significantly different than the fully mature ones, on the far left. I personally think that the riper the seeds are, the better the flavor. Ideally, I should have waited until all of the pods were very leathery if not completely dry to harvest, but I didn’t have anywhere for them to mature that was completely out of the rain. I learned this year that:
a). For the best flavor, wait not until the pods have just filled in, but the pods are as leathery as they can get.
b). Have a plan for where to the beans are going to mature in advance.
This year was so wet and cold that I needed to keep the bean vines in the ground so that they could mature well into the fall. But then the rains came and the beans pods started to mold, which is why I had to harvest the beans at all different stages of maturity.
Also see: how to cook dry/shell beans and The difference between dry bean and shell beans
This is the first year of us growing Etna beans and I am so excited about growing these but I read that they need to be harvested once mature to keep beans continually producing but I’ve been Googleing when they are fully mature… How does one know? Our pods are green and starting to get some reddish streaks on them. Based on your photos it seems like they were harvested too early right? Or does the leathery part happen as they dry?
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