Broad Bean seeds

[MaureenHall]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this question, but here goes anyway.

I've finished harvesting my broad beans, and quite a few of them are really huge and look as if they could be saved for seed. Question is, how do I store them till I'm ready to plant them? And how do I make sure they're completely dried out before I store them? Don't want a mouldy mess hanging around

All help and tips very gratefully received

[Flummery]

I usually leave them on the plant till the pod is fairly well dried out, but you can save them indoors. I would still leave them in the pod for preference. When they seem hard and dried up, put them in a jar with some silica gel - you can buy sachets of this in photograpy shops. This will draw out remaining moisture. You can re-activate it by putting it in a cooling oven after you've done some baking.

I usually dry my beans on the vine and then indoors and I've never had any go mouldy. I haven't used silica gel myself, but as I've said, mine are crispy when I pod them.

Good luck with it. Sustainability - good stuff.

[Two_Sheds]

I've just harvested my Witkiem Manita seeds. The pods were black & crispy, the beans are now drying on some newspaper on the windowsill, until Mr Sheds gets fed up of looking at them.

They'll go in brown envelopes next, probably labelled wrongly, until ready to sow in March.